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Thomas, Sophie R. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1110-430X, Querino, Ana Luiza de Andrade, Moreno-Alcántar, Guillermo, Tran, Thanh, Rodríguez-Prieto, Tamara, Qian, Simon, Giuseppe, Davide Di, Anzenhofer, Pia, Ntziachristos, Vasilis, Silva, Heveline, Somoza, Veronika, Fischer, Roland A. and Casini, Angela
(2025)
Water-soluble N-heterocyclic carbene stabilized gold nanoparticles by top-down synthesis: performance in catalysis and photoacoustic imaging.
Nanoscale, 17 (47).
pp. 27599-27608.
ISSN 2040-3364
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Abstract
N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have emerged as effective capping ligands for gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), offering improved stability and flexibility compared to sulfur-based alternatives. Two synthetic approaches, ‘bottom-up’ (BU) and ‘top-down’ (TD), have been described; however, comparative studies remain scarce. Herein, we report the TD-synthesized water-soluble NHC-stabilized AuNPs (NHC@AuNPs) for catalysis in water and biomedical applications, exhibiting exceptional stability in physiologically relevant conditions. Further, the catalytic ability of TD-NPs in model reactions was compared to their BU counterparts featuring the same NHC ligands. In detail, the catalysts were tested for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol and resazurin, as well as for the biomimetic oxidation of 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in aqueous conditions. The TD-NPs also showed distinct advantages over the BU NPs as contrast agents in photoacoustic imaging (PAI), further highlighting the differences between the two families of colloids.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Data availability The authors confirm that the data supporting this article is available within the article and the supplementary information (SI). Supplementary figures, materials, and methods are included in the SI. See DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d5nr03709c. Acknowledgements Dr Carsten Peters (TUM) is kindly acknowledged for his assistance recording TEM data. |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Chemistry, Pharmacy and Pharmacology |
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| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 17 Sep 2026 10:52 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Sep 2026 23:03 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104575 |
| DOI: | 10.1039/D5NR03709C |
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