Ultrabright, highly heat-stable gold nanoclusters through functional ligands and hydrothermally-induced luminescence enhancement

Strongly luminescent, highly heat-stable gold nanoclusters with a quantum yield of up to 59.6% were prepared by a simple hydrothermal reaction. Hydrothermally-induced fluorescence enhancement of gold nanoclusters is observed for the first time. Heat-stable gold nanoclusters can be applied as a luminescent label in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) thermal cycles of DNA amplification.