Facile method for CLSM imaging unfunctionalized Au nanoparticles through fluorescent channels

The microscopic visualization of metal nanoparticles has become a useful tool for the investigation of their applications in cell labeling and the study of their bio-effects. In the current study, we have developed a facile method with confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) to observe unfunctionalized Au nanoparticles through fluorescent channels. The sharp reflected signal and photostable property of the metal nanoparticles makes the present method very ideal for fluorescent co-localization, real-time imaging, and further quantitative analysis. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Lan Yuan and Wei Wei contributed equally to this study.