Thermal denaturation of egg protein under nanosecond pulsed laser heating of gold nanoparticles

Thermal denaturation of egg protein in the presence of gold nanoparticles via their heating at the plasmon resonance wavelength by the pulsed radiation of the second harmonic of an Nd:YAG laser (532 nm) is investigated. The experimental dependence of the protein denaturation time on the mean laser power is obtained. The heating temperature of the medium with gold nanoparticles is calculated. The numerical estimates of the temperature of the heated medium containing protein and gold nanoparticles (45.3°C at the moment of protein denaturation) are in good agreement with the literature data on its thermal denaturation and with the data of pyrometric measurements (42.0 ± 1.5°C). The egg protein may be successfully used to investigate the specific features of laser heating of proteins in the presence of metal nanoparticles under their excitation at the plasmon resonance wavelength.