Photobleaching of fluorophores frequently limits their detectability or observation time. We examined Indocyanine green (ICG) which is widely used in medical testing and is highly unstable. We showed that spatial localization of ICG near metallic gold colloids resulted in increased photostability. This suggests the use of fluorophore-metal conjugates in situations adversely affected by photobleaching.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Center for Fluorescence Spectroscopy, 725 West Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. chris@cfs.umbi.umd.edu
