Development of gold nanoclusters: from preparation to applications in the field of biomedicine

Abstract

Gold nanoclusters (AuNCs), with sizes of less than 2 nm, consist of several to hundreds of gold atoms. AuNCs, protected by templates or ligands, not only have high chemical stability, but also have high catalytic activity, high biocompatibility and strong luminescence. As a new type of fluorescent nanomaterial, AuNCs have large Stokes shift, long lifetime, high quantum yield (QY) and adjustable fluorescence range. Based on the above properties, AuNCs are widely used in many fields such as photo/electrocatalysts, metamaterials, bioimaging agents, photovoltaics, and chemical sensors. This review mainly describes the methods of synthesizing AuNCs using different templates or ligands and the applications of AuNCs in different fields such as fluorescence sensing, bio-imaging, drug delivery and disease treatment in recent years.