Fluorescence quenching/enhancement surface assays: Signal manipulation using silver-coated gold nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles covalently attached to the indium tin oxide coated glass slide drastically quench fluorescence of a surface immunoassay (approximately 5-fold). Silver electrochemically deposited over the gold particles leads to fluorescence amplification: signal increases approximately 7-8 times if compared to the signal on gold particles not covered with silver. This phenomenon allows enhancing of the surface immunoassays utilizing both types of nanoparticles. (c) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.