Solvent-Induced Aggregation of Self-Assembled Copper-Cysteine Nanoparticles Reacted with Glutathione: Enhancing Linear and Nonlinear Optical Properties.

Copper-thiolate self-assembly nanostructures are a unique class of nanomaterials because of their interesting properties such as hierarchical structures, luminescence, and large nonlinear optical efficiency. Herein, we synthesized biomolecule cysteine (Cys) and glutathione (GSH) capped sub-100 nm self-assembly nanoparticles (Cu-Cys-GSH NPs) with red fluorescence. The as-synthesized NPs show high emission enhancement in the presence of ethanol, caused by the aggregation-induced emission. We correlated the structure and optical properties of Cu-Cys-GSH NPs by measuring the mass, morphology, and surface charge as well as their two-photon excited fluorescence cross-section (σ2PEPL), two-photon absorption cross-section (σTPA) and first hyperpolarizability (ß) of Cu-Cys-GSH NPs in water and water-ethanol using near-infrared wavelength. We found a high ß value as (77 ± 10) × 10-28 esu (in water) compared to the reference medium water. The estimated values of σ2PEPL and σTPA are found to be (13 ± 2) GM and (1.4 ± 0.2) × 104 GM, respectively. We hope our investigations of linear and nonlinear optical properties of copper-thiolate self-assemblies in water and its solvent-induced aggregates will open up new possibilities in designing self-assembled systems for many applications including sensing, drug delivery, and catalysis.

Four orders-of-magnitude enhancement in the two-photon excited photoluminescence of homoleptic gold thiolate nanoclusters following zinc ion-induced aggregation.

Herein we report unprecedented determination of the molar mass of zinc mediated assemblies of homoleptic gold nanoclusters, based on charge detection mass spectrometry measurements. The accurate determination of the molar mass of zinc coordinated assemblies of gold clusters has further allowed unambiguous determination of the two-photon excited photoluminescence cross section of the same. Furthermore, in line with one-photon excited photoluminescence measurements, four orders-of-magnitude enhancement in two-photon excited photoluminescence of gold nanoclusters has been observed following complexation with zinc ions. The study reported herein is envisioned to not only deepen the fundamental understanding of the multiphoton excitation properties of atomic clusters but also widen their application potential as luminescence markers.

Functionalized Au15 nanoclusters as luminescent probes for protein carbonylation detection.

Atomically precise, ligand-protected gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) attract considerable attention as contrast agents in the biosensing field. However, the control of their optical properties and functionalization of surface ligands remain challenging. Here we report a strategy to tailor AuNCs for the precise detection of protein carbonylation-a causal biomarker of ageing. We produce Au15SG13 (SG for glutathione) with atomic precision and functionalize it with a thiolated aminooxy moiety to impart protein carbonyl-binding properties. Mass spectrometry and molecular modelling reveal the key structural features of Au15SG12-Aminooxy and its reactivity towards carbonyls. Finally, we demonstrate that Au15SG12-Aminooxy detects protein carbonylation in gel-based 1D electrophoresis by one- and two-photon excited fluorescence. Importantly, to our knowledge, this is the first application of an AuNC that detects a post-translational modification as a nonlinear optical probe. The significance of post-translational modifications in life sciences may open avenues for the use of Au15SG13 and other nanoclusters as contrast agents with tailored surface functionalization and optical properties.

Second harmonic scattering from mass characterized 2D graphene oxide sheets.

In this communication, we report the second harmonic scattering from mass characterized 2D graphene oxide sheets dispersed in an aqueous suspension, in the femtosecond regime at 800 nm laser excitation. Charge-detection mass-spectrometry, performing at the single sheet level, allows for an exhaustive molar mass distribution and thus concentration for these 2D nanomaterials samples. The orientation-averaged hyperpolarizability value is (1.36 ± 0.15) × 10-25 esu as determined by the concentration-dependent harmonic scattering signal. In addition, the multi-photon excited fluorescence spectrum is characterized by a broad band in the visible range between 350 and 700 nm centered at about 500 nm.

Ligand shell size effects on one- and two-photon excitation fluorescence of zwitterion functionalized gold nanoclusters.

Gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) are an emerging class of luminescent nanomaterials but still suffer from moderate photoluminescence quantum yields. Recent efforts have focused on tailoring their emission properties. Introducing zwitterionic ligands to cap the metallic kernel is an efficient approach to enhance their one-photon excitation fluorescence intensity. In this work, we extend this concept to the nonlinear optical regime, i.e., two-photon excitation fluorescence. For a proper comparison between theory and experiment, both ligand and solvent effects should be considered. The effects of ligand shell size and of aqueous solvent on the optical properties of zwitterion functionalized gold nanoclusters have been studied by performing quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) simulations.

Sub-100 nanometer silver doped gold-cysteine supramolecular assemblies with enhanced nonlinear optical properties.

The ability of gold(i) thiolates to self-assemble into supramolecular architectures opens the route for a new class of nanomaterials with a unique structure-optical property relationship. However, for a confirmed structure-optical property relationship, a control of the supramolecular architectures is required. In this work, we report a simple synthesis of sub-100 nanometer gold-cysteine and silver doped gold-cysteine supramolecular assemblies. We explore in particular silver-doping as a strategy to enhance the optical properties of these supramolecular assemblies. By an accurate characterization of as-synthesized supramolecular nanoparticles, we have been able to measure for the first time, their absolute two-photon absorption cross-section, two-photon excited fluorescence cross-section and first hyperpolarizabilities at different near-IR wavelengths. Huge values are obtained for silver doped gold-cysteine supramolecular assemblies, as compared to their corresponding undoped counterpart. In addition, we employ DFT and TD-DFT methods to study the geometric and electronic structures of model gold-cysteine and silver doped gold-cysteine compounds in order to address the structure-linear/nonlinear optical property relationship. The aim is to gain insights into the origin of the nonlinear optical enhancement of silver-doped gold supramolecular assemblies.

Isomeric Effect of Mercaptobenzoic Acids on the Synthesis, Stability, and Optical Properties of Au25(MBA)18 Nanoclusters.

We report a simple size focusing, two-step "bottom-up" protocol to prepare water-soluble Au25(MBA)18 nanoclusters, using the three isomers of mercaptobenzoic acids (p/m/o-MBA) as capping ligands and Me3NBH3 as a mild reducing agent. The relative stability of the gas-phase multiply deprotonated Au25(MBA)18 ions was investigated by collision-induced dissociation. This permitted us to evaluate the possible isomeric effect on the Au-S interfacial bond stress. We also investigated their optical properties. The absorption spectra of Au25(MBA)18 isomers were very similar and showed bands at 690, 470, and 430 nm. For all Au25(MBA)18 isomeric clusters, no measurable one-photon excited fluorescence under UV-vis light was found, in neither solid- nor solution-state. The two-photon excited emission spectra and first hyperpolarizabilities of the clusters were also determined. The results are discussed in terms of the possible isomeric effect on excitations within the metal core and the possibility of charge transfer excitations from the ligands to the metal nanocluster.

Bulky Counterions: Enhancing the Two-Photon Excited Fluorescence of Gold Nanoclusters.

Increasing fluorescence quantum yields of ligand-protected gold nanoclusters has attracted wide research interest. The strategy consisting in using bulky counterions has been found to dramatically enhance the fluorescence. In this Communication, we push forward this concept to the nonlinear optical regime. We show that by an appropriate choice of bulky counterions and of solvent, a 30-fold increase in two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) signal at ≈600 nm for gold nanoclusters can be obtained. This would correspond to a TPEF cross-section in the range of 0.1 to 1 GM.

Au10(SG)10: A Chiral Gold Catenane Nanocluster with Zero Confined Electrons. Optical Properties and First-Principles Theoretical Analysis.

We report facile synthesis of the Au10(SG)10 nanoclusters, where SG stands for glutathione, found to be promising as a new class of radiosensitizers for cancer radiotherapy. The homoleptic catenane structure with two Au5SG5 interconnected rings, among different isomer structures, gives the best agreement between theoretical and experimental optical spectra and XRD patterns. This catenane structure exhibits a centrosymmetry-broken structure, resulting in enhanced second harmonic response and new characteristic circular dichroism signals in the spectral region of 250-400 nm. This is the first determination of the nonlinear optical properties of a ligated cluster with an equal Au-to-ligand ratio, thus without a metallic core and therefore zero confined electrons. Insight into the nonlinear and chiroptical efficiencies arising from interplay between structural and electronic properties is provided by the TD-DFT approach.

Ligand-core NLO-phores: a combined experimental and theoretical approach to the two-photon absorption and two-photon excited emission properties of small-ligated silver nanoclusters.

We report a combined experimental and theoretical study of the two-photon absorption and excited emission properties of monodisperse ligand stabilized Ag11, Ag15 and Ag31 nanoclusters in aqueous solutions. The nanoclusters were synthesized using a cyclic reduction under oxidative conditions and separated by vertical gel electrophoresis. The two-photon absorption cross-sections of these protected noble metal nanoclusters measured within the biologically attractive 750-900 nm window are several orders of magnitude larger than that reported for commercially available standard organic dyes. The two-photon excited fluorescence spectra are also presented for excitation wavelengths within the same excitation spectral window. They exhibit size-tunability. Because the fundamental photophysical mechanisms underlying these multiphoton processes in ligand protected clusters with only a few metal atoms are not fully understood yet, a theoretical model is proposed to identify the key driving elements. Elements that regulate the dipole moments and the nonlinear optical properties are the nanocluster size, its structure and the charge distribution on both the metal core and the bound ligands. We coined this new class of NLO materials as "Ligand-Core" NLO-phores.

Tuning Ag29 nanocluster light emission from red to blue with one and two-photon excitation.

We demonstrate that the tuning of the light emission from red to blue in dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA) capped Ag29 nanoclusters can be trigged with one and two photon excitations. The cluster stoichiometry was determined with mass spectrometry and found to be Ag29(DHLA)12. In a detailed optical investigation, we show that these silver nanoclusters exhibit a strong red photoluminescence visible to the naked eye and characterized by a quantum yield of nearly ∼2% upon one-photon excitation. In the nonlinear optical (NLO) study of the properties of the clusters, the two-photon excited fluorescence spectra were recorded and their first hyperpolarizability obtained. The two-photon absorption cross-section at ∼800 nm for Ag29(DHLA)12 is higher than 10(4) GM and the hyperpolarizability is 106 × 10(-30) esu at the same excitation wavelength. The two-photon excited fluorescence spectrum appears strongly blue-shifted as compared to the one-photon excited spectrum, displaying a broad band between 400 and 700 nm. The density functional theory (DFT) provides insight into the structural and electronic properties of Ag29(DHLA)12 as well as into interplay between metallic subunit or core and ligands which is responsible for unique optical properties.

Two-photon absorption of ligand-protected Ag15 nanoclusters. Towards a new class of nonlinear optics nanomaterials.

We report theoretical and experimental results on two-photon absorption (TPA) cross section of thiolated small silver cluster Ag15L11 exhibiting extraordinary large TPA in red. Our findings provide the responsible mechanism and allow proposing new classes of nanoclusters with large TPAs which are promising for biological and medical applications.

Non-linear optical properties of gold quantum clusters. The smaller the better.

By developing a new method for synthesizing atomically monodisperse Au15 nanoclusters stabilized with glutathione molecules and using the current state-of-the-art methods for synthesizing monodisperse protected Au25 nanoclusters, we investigated their nonlinear optical (NLO) properties after two-photon absorption. The two-photon emission spectra and the first hyperpolarizabilities of these particles were obtained using, in particular, a hyper-Rayleigh scattering technique. The influence on NLO of the excitation wavelength, the size as well as the nature of the ligands is also explored and discussed. Au15, the smallest stable thiolated gold nanocluster, presents remarkable nonlinear properties with respect to two-photon processes. The two-photon absorption cross-section at 780 nm for Au15 is ∼65,700 GM. This experimental cross-section value points to a quantum yield for two-photon emission of about 3 × 10(-7) at 475 nm for Au15. The first hyperpolarizability ß for Au15 clusters (509 × 10(-30) esu), as compared to Au25 clusters (128 × 10(-30) esu), is larger considering the difference in the number of gold atoms. Also, 10(30) ß per atom values reported for Au15 and Au25 clusters are more than two orders of magnitude larger than the values reported for Au NPs in the size range 10-50 nm, outlining the quantum cluster regime.

Influence of the tyrosine environment on the second harmonic generation of iturinic antimicrobial lipopeptides at the air-water interface.

The second harmonic generation (SHG) response at the air-water interface from the tyrosine-containing natural iturinic cyclo-lipopeptides mycosubtilin, iturin A and bacillomycin D is reported. It is shown that this response is dominated by the single tyrosine residue present in these molecules owing to the large first hyperpolarizability arising from the non-centrosymmetric aromatic ring structure of this amino acid. The SHG response of these iturinic antibiotics is also compared to the response of surfactin, a cyclo-lipopeptide with a similar l,d-amino acid sequence but lacking a tyrosine residue, and PalmATA, a synthetic linear lipopeptide possessing a single tyrosine residue but lacking the amino acid sequence structuring the cycle of the iturinic antibiotics. From the light polarization analysis of the SHG response, it is shown that the tyrosine local environment is critical in defining the SHG response of these peptides at the air-water interface. Our results demonstrate that tyrosine, similar to tryptophan, can be used as an endogenous molecular probe of peptides and proteins for SHG at the air-water interface, paving the way for SHG studies of other tyrosine-containing bioactive molecules.

A bottom-up approach to build the hyperpolarizability of peptides and proteins from their amino acids.

We experimentally demonstrate that some peptides and proteins lend themselves to an elementary analysis where their first hyperpolarizability can be decomposed into the coherent superposition of the first hyperpolarizability of their elementary units. We then show that those elementary units can be associated with the amino acids themselves in the case of nonaromatic amino acids and nonresonant second harmonic generation. As a case study, this work investigates the experimentally determined first hyperpolarizability of rat tail Type I collagen and compares it to that of the shorter peptide [(PPG)10]3, where P and G are the one-letter code for Proline and Glycine, respectively, and that of the triamino acid peptides PPG and GGG. An absolute value of (0.16 ± 0.01) × 10(-30) esu for the first hyperpolarizability of nonaromatic amino acids is then obtained by using the newly defined 0.087 × 10(-30) esu reference value for water. By using a collagen like model, the microscopic hyperpolarizability along the peptide bond can be evaluated at (0.7 ± 0.1) × 10(-30) esu.

Sensing with multipolar second harmonic generation from spherical metallic nanoparticles.

We show that sensing in the nonlinear optical regime using multipolar surface plasmon resonances is more sensitive in comparison to sensing in the linear optical regime. Mie theory, and its extension to the second harmonic generation from a metallic nanosphere, is used to describe multipolar second harmonic generation from silver metallic nanoparticles. The standard figure of merit of a potential plasmonic sensor based on this principle is then calculated. We finally demonstrate that such a sensor is more sensitive to optical refraction index changes occurring in the vicinity of the metallic nanoparticle than its linear counterpart.

Effect of a thioalkane capping layer on the first hyperpolarizabilities of gold and silver nanoparticles.

We have measured the first hyperpolarizabilities of thioalkane capped silver and gold metallic nanoparticles. The values found are ß(AgC 12-10 nm) = (2.10 ± 0.23) × 10(-26) esu for 10 nm diameter silver nanoparticles and ß(AuC 18-18 nm) = (3.37 ± 0.08) × 10(-26) esu for 18 nm diameter gold nanoparticles at the fundamental wavelength of 784 nm. By comparison to the corresponding values reported for citrate capped silver and gold metallic nanoparticles, after size corrections, decreases by factors of 4.3 and 6.5 respectively are observed. These decreases are tentatively attributed to the bonds formed between the gold and silver surface atoms and the sulfur atoms of the capping layer.

Three-dimensional mapping of single gold nanoparticles embedded in a homogeneous transparent matrix using optical second-harmonic generation.

We report the three-dimensional mapping of 150 nm gold metallic nanoparticles dispersed in a homogeneous transparent polyacrylamide matrix using second-harmonic generation. We demonstrate that the position of single nanoparticles can be well defined using only one incident fundamental beam and the harmonic photon detection performed at right angle. The fundamental laser beam properties are determined using its spatial autocorrelation function and used to prove that single nanoparticles are observed. Polarization resolved measurements are also performed allowing for a clear separation of the second-harmonic response of the single gold metallic nanoparticles from that of aggregates of such nanoparticles.

Optical second harmonic generation of single metallic nanoparticles embedded in a homogeneous medium.

We report the optical second harmonic generation from individual 150 nm diameter gold nanoparticles dispersed in gelatin. The quadratic hyperpolarizability of the particles is determined and the input polarization dependence of the second harmonic intensity obtained. These results are found in excellent agreement with ensemble measurements and finite element simulations. These results open up new perspectives for the investigation of the nonlinear optical properties of noble metal nanoparticles.

Investigating the interaction of crystal violet probe molecules on sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles with hyper-Rayleigh scattering.

We report the use of the nonlinear optical technique of hyper-Rayleigh scattering to investigate the interaction of the cationic probe molecule crystal violet with micelles of sodium dodecyl sulfate. An absolute value of (847 +/- 80) x 10(-30) esu is measured at the fundamental wavelength of 870 nm for the molecular hyperpolarizability of crystal violet free in pure aqueous solutions. In aqueous solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate, above and below the critical micelle concentration, the measured hyperpolarizability of crystal violet is weaker than in the solution free of sodium dodecyl sulfate. From the comparison with linear optical photoabsorption spectroscopy data, this difference is attributed to electrostatic interactions between the cationic crystal violet molecules and the negatively charged sodium dodecyl sulfate surfactant molecules present in excess. Polarization resolved hyper-Rayleigh scattering measurements are then performed to show that, below and above the critical micelle concentration, crystal violet molecules also undergo symmetry changes upon interaction with sodium dodecyl sulfate. Above the critical micelle concentration, the minimum fraction of micelles interacting with at least one CV molecule is estimated. For instance, for a crystal violet aqueous concentration of 150 microM, this fraction is larger than 7%.