Experimental Platforms at the Nanoscale: Novel Techniques for the Characterization and Manipulation of Metallic Nanoparticles

Abstract

The unyielding complexity of the chemical and biological networks that give rise to the phenomenon of life compels researchers to broaden and evolve the ways in which they carry out scientific inquiry. In this thesis work, we confonted this challenge using the general concept of expanding the scope and types of experiments that can directly probe, in complex environments, the nanometer and microsecond timescales defining the dynamics of the surrounding molecular milieu. Specifically, we developed a series of experimental and theoretical tools that enabled the use of single, freely diffusing, metallic nanoparticles as robust, nanoscale experimental platforms that can be directly embedded into, tracked, and manipulated within the environment-of-interest. These novel techniques were capable of quantifying properties, such as size and shape, of single particles, measuring and perturbing the medium in a particle's vicinity, and conjugating metallic nanoparticles to complex biomolecules for further single-molecule experimentation. We envision that this work will enable the development of even more powerful technologies utilizing metallic nanoparticles, with the ultimate goal of transforming these particles into powerful photophysical probes for in cellulo experiments at high temporal and spatial resolutions.