Synthesis of metal oxides supported membrane for western blotting technique

Abstract

The present thesis entitled Synthesis of metal oxides supported membrane for western blotting technique is based on membrane technology and nanotechnology principles with respect to protein detection applications. The surface modification of membrane done with different metallic nano particle has been physico-chemically characterized using various techniques. In this thesis, we have used gold nano particles (AuNPs), bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) nano particles and zinc oxide (ZnO) nano particles supported membrane for their application towards low molecular protein detection and water treatment analysis.Initially, we have demonstrated the AuNPs supported on nitrocellulose (NC) membrane by a simple contact between an AuNPs solution prepared from Tetra aurochloro acid (HAuCl4) solutions as source. NC membranes are particularly used to bimolecular analyses in western blot experiment, especially for the detection of important proteins or peptides. The problem arises when the membrane suffers from insufficient detection sensitivity between 2-5 KDa. These deficiencies can be overwhelmed by coating or blending of nanoparticles on a porous membrane. The surface modified membranes were able to enhance the membrane performance than conventional membranes, since metals have high attraction towards protein Activities of nanoparticles supported membrane were studied through western blot experiment and their performances were compared with the conventional membrane. The coated membrane performance increased which was proved by western blot experiment. newline