Applications of gold nanoparticles in virus detection

Draz, Mohamed Shehata; Shafiee, Hadi

AuNPs are widely described as electroactive and catalytic tags in various electrochemical assays applied to virus detection (Fig. 2 ). Based on their redox and electrical properties, AuNPs can directly act as electrochemical tags detected either by their acid dissolution followed by electrochemical stripping measurements of gold ions [68] or by their direct deposition on the surface of electro transducers, allowing an enhanced electrical conduction and resistance change [69] [70] [71] [72] [73] . AuNPs can indirectly perform electrochemical transduction functions based on their catalytic activity toward some chemical reduction reactions of metal ions (e.g., silver and copper) [72, 74, 75] or other species, such as H2O2 [76] [77] [78] . This potential to catalyze metal deposition is preferentially called NP-metal enhancement amplification, and it represents the basic function of multiple scanometric [50, 70, [79] [80] [81] [82] [83] [84] [85] [86] [87] [88] , photoelectric [89] , light-scattering [90] , and colorimetric schemes [91] for virus detection. Additionally, AuNP-based catalysis for the oxidation-reduction reaction of hydroquinone has been reported in another simple, colorimetricbased virus detection method [92] .