Probing the interactions between disulfide-based ligands and gold nanoparticles using a functionalised fluorescent perylene-monoimide dye.

The binding of disulfides to gold nanoparticles was investigated using fluorescence spectroscopy and a perylene-monoimide dye coupled to a dissymmetric disulfide via a tetraethyleneglycolalkyl chain (PMImSS). Quantum chemical calculations using the polarizable continuum model (PCM) predict a strong quenching of perylene-monoimide fluorescence by gold nanoparticles as a result of efficient excitation energy transfer from the dye to the particle. Such quenching is indeed observed when unfunctionalised gold nanoparticles are added to a solution of PMImSS.