State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, East China Normal University, 3663 North Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200062, People's Republic of China.
Methods Appl Fluoresc. 2019 Nov 27;8(1):012001. doi: 10.1088/2050-6120/ab57e7.
Noble metal nanomaterials have been studied by many researchers for their ultra-small size, excellent photophysical properties and good biocompatibility. Metal nanoclusters are a kind of nanoscale ultrafine particle, which have completely different properties from macroscopic metals. In the visible region, they do not usually show the characteristic surface plasmon resonance absorption but instead show fluorescence in the visible to near infrared region. In particular, the noble metallic (Au, Ag, Cu, etc) nanoclusters (NMNCs) have broad application prospects in the field of biomedicine as probes for fluorescence sensing. Their strong photoluminescence, living cell compatibility, and easy availability make up for the shortcomings of traditional fluorescent probes such as organic fluorescent dyes, fluorescent proteins, and fluorescent quantum dots. In this review, we summarize the synthetic method and application of metal nanoclusters as fluorescent probes in bio-sensing and imaging, especially in the early diagnosis of cancer cells.
贵金属纳米材料因其超小的尺寸、优异的光物理性质和良好的生物相容性而受到许多研究人员的关注。金属纳米团簇是一种纳米级超细颗粒，与宏观金属具有完全不同的性质。在可见光区域，它们通常不表现出特征的表面等离子体共振吸收，而是在可见到近红外区域显示荧光。特别是贵金属（Au、Ag、Cu 等）纳米团簇（NMNCs）作为荧光传感探针，在生物医学领域具有广阔的应用前景。它们强的光致发光、与活细胞的兼容性以及易于获得性弥补了传统荧光探针如有机荧光染料、荧光蛋白和荧光量子点的缺点。本文综述了金属纳米团簇作为荧光探针在生物传感和成像中的合成方法及应用，特别是在癌细胞的早期诊断中的应用。
