Glucosamine functionalized gold nanoparticles for the specific detection and colorimetric assay of glutathione in real samples

Abstract

In this study, we report an experimental protocol based on gold nanoparticles (GNPs) for the selective and efficient chromogenic detection and determination of glutathione in two pharmaceutical samples, viz. Maxiliv and Glutaderm, in real time. The glucosamine hydrochloride driven hydrothermal (40 °C) wet chemical reduction of gold(III) chloride trihydrate resulted in gold sol with a ruby red color exhibiting a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) at 521 nm. The most frequent average size of these GNPs was found to be 23 nm and their concentration was evaluated to be 8.4 nM. The zeta potential measurements and interaction of these GNPs against NaCl of varying molarities indicated their long-term stability. According to SEM analysis, these GNPs exhibited a nanowire morphology and produced a categorical color change from ruby red to blue selectively with GSH in the presence of a wide range of similar analytes in real time. UV-vis, FT-IR, XPS, SEM, TEM, AFM, EDAX, DLS, zeta potential, and other techniques were used to characterize the as-synthesized GNPs and to study their interaction with glutathione.