Air-stable nanoparticles of Fe3O4/Au were prepared via sonolysis of a solution mixture of hydrogen tetrachloroaureate(III) trihydrate (HAuCl4) and (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES)-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles with further drop-addition of sodium citrate. The Fe3O4/Au nanoparticles were characterized by x-ray powder diffraction (XRD), ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry. Nanoparticles of Fe3O4/Au obtained under appropriate conditions possess a very high saturation magnetization of about 63 emu g−1 and their average diameter is about 30 nm.

Due to their unique properties, such as good biocompatibility, excellent conductivity, effective catalysis, high density, and high surface-to-volume ratio, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are widely used in the field of bioassay. Mainly, AuNPs used in optical biosensors have been described in some reviews. In this review, we highlight recent advances in AuNP-based non-optical bioassays, including piezoelectric biosensor, electrochemical biosensor, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) bio-detection. Some representative examples are presented to illustrate the effect of AuNPs in non-optical bioassay and the mechanisms of AuNPs in improving detection performances are described. Finally, the review summarizes the future prospects of AuNPs in non-optical biosensors.

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Gold nanoparticles were used as mass amplifiers to improve the frequency signal of QCM detection of DNA. Indirect labelling and direct labelling of DNA probes with gold nanoparticles was studied. Two-times amplification of gold nanoparticles was carried out to further improve the detection signal. It was suggested that the frequency shift of the indirect-labelling method was much more significant than that of the direct-labelling method. The detection limit of one-time amplification and two-times amplification detection of a 33-base oligonucleotide was 100 and 10 fM, respectively. Under corresponding sensitivity, the one-base mismatched DNA and complementary DNA could be distinguished clearly. As an example, the two-times amplification detection of 677TT gene type validated that the ratio of frequency shift for a complementary DNA: one-base-mismatched one was 2.1:1 under the detection limit of 10 fM.

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