Liu, Zhen2010-05-132010-05-132010-04-21https://hdl.handle.net/11299/62113Additional contributors: Bryce Marquis; Christy L. Haynes (faculty mentor).The study of nanotoxicity is essential to evaluate the safety of human consumption and to inform the design of nanomaterials for biomedical uses. In this work, living cells were exposed to noble metal nanoparticles with varied size, geometry and surface chemistry in order to determine the effects these properties have on noble metal nanoparticle uptake and toxicity. Nanoparticles were synthesized using a variety of methods including surfactant templating, secondary deposition, and Ostwald Ripening under controlled light conditions in order to achieve nanomaterials with varied size and geometry. Surface chemistry was varied by surfactant exchange using charged thiols such as 11- mercaptoundecanoic acid and 11-mercaptoundecylamine to replace the initial surfactants, thus yielding nanoparticles with negative or positive z-potentials. Cellular uptake was measured using ICP-AES in exposed cells. Toxicity was assessed by MTT and hemolysis assays. In fact, both cellular uptake of nanoparticles and viability were dependent on the physical characteristics of the nanomaterials varied in this study.en-USDepartment of Chemical Engineering and Materials ScienceDepartment of ChemistryInstitute of TechnologyPresentation