Fig. 1

Representative microscopy of BEAS-2B cells treated with 1 nM of 14 nm citrate stabilised AuNPs (adapted from [1]). a Control untreated BEAS-2B cells, at × 10 magnification. b BEAS-2B cells treated with AuNPs for 24 h, at × 10 magnification. c Dark field image of BEAS-2B cells incubated with AuNPs for 24 h, at × 60 magnification (insert scale 20 µm). d The spectral profile of singularly dispersed and aggregated 14 nm citrate-stabilised AuNPs, collected from ten randomly selected particles