Spectroscopic investigation of hemoglobin adsorbed onto gold nanoparticles

The adsorption of horse hemoglobin onto the surface of gold nanoparticles was studied using fluorescence spectroscopy. Gold nanoparticles quench the fluorescence emission of tryptophan residues in the structure of hemoglobin. By representing the dependence of log[(F₀-F)/(F-F_sat)] on the logarithm of the concentration of gold nanoparticles in the solution, we obtained the binding parameters of hemoglobin onto the surface of gold nanoparticles. The number of binding sites was calculated to be 1.181 and the binding constant 7.935*10⁹ M⁻¹.