pH Effect of Gold Nanoparticles Synthesis Encapsulation in Polyamide Amine Generation 3.0 (AuNP-PAMAM G3.0)

The unique properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) allow them to be used as drug and gene delivery agent, so they are effective in diagnosis and therapy. At the moment, one of AuNP development is AuNP encapsulated polyamide amine third generation (AuNP-PAMAM G 3.0). The synthesis of AuNPPAMAM G 3.0 can be done by reacting HAuCl4 with PAMAM G3.0, then adding NaBH4 as a reducing agent. This makes AuNP-PAMAM G 3.0 to be strongly influenced by the pH reaction. The results of this study show that AuNP has sizes ranging from 11 to 19 nm at pH 2 while their sizes are 2 to 5 nm at pH 7 and 9. The separation using Sephadex PD-10 column shows that the elution efficiencies are 10% at pH 2, 40% at pH 7 and 50% at pH 9. Gold nanoparticles at pH 7 and 9 are more stable than pH 2 in saline. Based on the above results, it is shown that AuNP could be encapsulated by PAMAM G3.0 at pH 7 and 9 but AuNP at pH 2 could not.