Date of Graduation

Summer 2011

Degree

Master of Science in Materials Science

Department

Physics, Astronomy, and Materials Science

Committee Chair

Kartik Ghosh

Abstract

Nanomaterial research has attracted a great deal of enthusiasm from the public because of the applications of nanomaterials in various areas of science such as physics, chemistry, medicine, and materials science. Biocompatible and nontoxic cobalt nanoparticles have biomedical applications including drug delivery, cell and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) separation, gene cloning, and magnetic resonance imaging. The main aim of this research project is to produce contamination-free cobalt nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique was used to fabricate contamination-free cobalt nanoparticles directly from cobalt foil. A KrF laser having laser pulses of wavelength 248 nm, pulse duration of 20 ns, and repetition rate of 10 Hz was employed in pulsed laser deposition technique. The synthesized cobalt nanoparticles were characterized using UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and dynamic laser light scattering (DLLS). The synthesized cobalt nanoparticles were stabilized in glucose solutions of various concentrations. The UV-Vis absorption peak around 268 nm confirms the presence of cobalt nanoparticles in aqueous media. The DLLS size distribution of cobalt nanoparticles has been found in the range between 355 nm to 465 nm with variation of growth parameters such as laser energy, number of shot, and glucose concentration. Glucose stabilized cobalt nanoparticles have been successfully functionalized with DNA and laser modified DNA. The binding of cobalt nanoparticles with DNA plays an important role in the future for gene delivery.

Keywords

nanoparticles, pulsed laser deposition, DNA, biocompatible, UV-Vis spectroscopy

Subject Categories

Materials Science and Engineering

Copyright

© Hari Lal Bhatta

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