About this Research Topic
Noble metal nanomaterials exhibit unique and intriguing physicochemical, optical, electric, magnetic, and catalytic properties to support their versatile functions and applications. Generally, the functional features of noble metal nanomaterials are closely associated with their morphology, size, composition, nanostructure, surface modification, and assembled behavior. In principle, the properties of noble metal nanomaterials are accurately determined by engineering any one of these factors, thereby facilitating the design flexibility, tunability, and diversity of noble metal nanomaterials for bioanalytical applications. In particular, with the rapid development of interdisciplinarity research activities, the precise and smart control of synthesis, design, modification, and functionalization of noble metal nanomaterials has emerged in recent years as a promising strategy to endow their tunable properties, thus allowing them to be capable of acting as a high-performance labeled probe for biosensors and bioimaging. Increasingly emergent bioanalytical approaches enabled by the engineered noble metal nanomaterials have been extensively developed for the food safety inspection, environmental monitoring, as well as disease diagnostics, and control. The sensitivity, specificity, rapidity, and portability of both conventional and newly-developed analytical technologies are substantially enhanced by noble metal nanomaterials, and these advances are important for improving the capacity to respond to the known/unknown and ever-increasing threats to human health both in developed and developing countries.
In this Research Topic, we focus on highlighting the latest developments of noble metal nanomaterials and their bioanalytical applications. High-quality research articles, critical (mini)reviews, and perspectives in this field are all welcome for submission to this issue. Research interests include but are not limited to the following:
• Design, synthesis, self-assembly, surface modification and functionalization of noble metal nanomaterials
• In vitro detection of important disease biomarkers (nucleic acid, protein, exosome, pathogen, cell, etc.)
• Monitoring of food and environmental hazardous substances and quality control
• In vivo biosensing and bioimaging for detection and monitoring of diseases
Keywords: Noble metal nanomaterials, Synthesis, Surface modification and functionalization, Biosensor, Bioimaging
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
