Superquenching of SYBRGreen dye fluorescence in complex with DNA by gold nanoparticles

The influence of gold nanoparticles (diameter of about 2.5 nm) on the complex between the SYBRGreen dye and double-stranded DNA in solutions has been investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy. Strong quenching of dye fluorescence by nanosized gold particles (“superquenching”), characterized by a high Stern-Volmer constant of K SV ≥ 3.3 × 107 L/mol, has been found. The superquenching effect in the test system is explained in terms of contribution of several processes: electron transfer, formation of aggregates of gold nanoparticles involving dye dications, and enhancement of intersystem crossing by a heavy atom (gold atoms of nanoparticles).