SIZE AND SURFACE EFFECT OF GOLD NANOPARTICLES (AuNPs) IN NANOGOLD-ASSISTED PCR

Recently, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were reported to increase the specificity and efficiency of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In this paper, we tested the enhancement of AuNPs with five different sizes on the specificity of two-round PCR. The results showed that, except 5.02 nm AuNPs, the AuNPs that could achieve the similar enhancement happened to have nearly the same total surface area. The surface effect seems to be the key factor of nanogold-assisted PCR.