Dr. Joanna Olesiak-Banska

Advanced Materials Engineering and Modelling Group, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland

“Mutiphoton microscopy and spectroscopy of gold nanoparticles and amyloids”

Abstract:
Advantages of multiphoton imaging of biological samples are well recognized, but various limitations have prevented its broad application to date. One of them is a lack of markers with particularly favorable nonlinear optical properties and, simultaneously, bright and stable photoluminescence. I will present a comprehensive research on the third-order nonlinear optical properties of gold nanoparticles in various size regimes, investigated with Z-scan technique and multiphoton fluorescence techniques. [1] We explored nanoparticles with diameter >5 nm, which present plasmonic properties, [2] especially interesting in case of anisotropic shapes: nanorods and bipyramids. Moreover, we investigated ultrasmall gold nanoparticles of the size <2nm, called nanoclusters, which exhibit a combination of molecule-like and nanocrystal properties. [3, 4] Both classes of nanoparticles present different advantages in multiphoton imaging applications, what we show with studies in model biological systems, e.g. DNA liquid crystals. [5, 6] Finally, we present our recent results on the investigation of amyloid fibrils structure with gold nanoparticles. Apart from nanoparticle-detected amyloid aggregation, we investigate intrinsic nonlinear optical properties of amyloids and explore the potential of label-free multiphoton microscopy in imaging of amyloid superstructures.

1.       J. Olesiak-Banska et al. Chem. Soc. Rev. 48, 4087-4117 (2019)
2.       J. Olesiak-Banska et al. J. Phys. Chem. C 116, 13731−13737 (2012)
3.       J. Olesiak-Banska et al. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 20, 24523-24526 (2018)
4.       J. Olesiak-Bańska et al. RSC Adv. 6, 98748-98752 (2016)
5.       K. Brach et al. Langmuir 33, 8993-8999 (2017)
6.       J. Olesiak-Bańska et al. Nanoscale 5 (22), 10975 – 10981 (2013)