High coating of Ru(II) complexes on gold nanoparticles for single particle luminescence imaging in cells.

ABSTRACT

Gold nanoparticles are efficiently labelled with a luminescent ruthenium complex, producing 13 and 100 nm diameter, monodisperse red-emissive imaging probes with luminescence lifetimes prolonged over the molecular unit. Single, 100 nm particles are observed in whole cell luminescence imaging which reveals their biomolecular association with chromatin in the nucleus of cancer cells.