Browsing by Author "Schechtel, Shauna L"

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    The formation of supported lipid bilayers on nanoparticles as tools to further explore plasmonic properties
    (2022-01-04) Schechtel, Shauna L; Heyne, Belinda JM; Prenner, Elmar J; Shi, Yujun
    Forming a bilayer of lipids on the surface of various nanoparticles has been gaining popularity in the literature since the initial study by Mornet et al. (2005). The initial supported lipid bilayer system was formed on silica nanoparticles and explored for applications such as drug delivery. However, the main limitation is that these systems are currently characterized predominantly by cryo-TEM. Based on the limited accessibility of cryo-TEM, the first goal explored within this thesis was to assess whether a supported lipid bilayer on silica nanoparticles could be characterized by other techniques. The results indicate that zeta potential and conventional transmission electron microscopy work as characterization tools to confirm the presence of a supported lipid bilayer on the surface of silica nanoparticles. With our new characterization approach, we expand our research to engineer a new nanoparticle supported lipid bilayer system, a silver core – silica shell supported lipid bilayer (Ag@SiO2 SLB). Silver was chosen as a core material because of its plasmonic properties. The Ag@SiO2 supported lipid bilayer was synthesized and characterized using dynamic light scattering, zeta potential and UV-VIS spectroscopy. A wide range of imaging techniques have also been implemented to obtain direct evidence of the lipid deposition on the surface of the nanoparticle, such as TEM, cryo-TEM, HR-TEM, staining and EDX. Despite our effort, direct evidence has yet to be obtained. Ag@SiO2 SLB was also investigated for its ability to enhance fluorescence via plasmonic effect. Herein, it was shown that the Ag@SiO2 SLB follows distance dependant fluorescence enhancement trends. Taken together a novel material was synthesized, characterization was expanded, and potential applications expanded the value of the SLB system.