Fine Tuned Seed Mediated Synthesis and Photothermal Response of Gold Nanorods

Abstract

Gold nanomaterials are of widespread interest for the potential to assist in applications that include the delivery and selective release of drugs, hyperthermia based treatment of cancers, and enhanced image contrast in biological systems. 1 These nanomaterials can be prepared in a variety of shapes, sizes, and surface chemistries as appropriate for these and other applications. One reason to tune these parameters is to adjust their plasmon resonant properties [1]. For example, tuning the longitudinal band of their plasmon resonance, one can tune the overlap between this resonance and an incident laser source. Both can be tuned to fit in the so-called "water window" of absorbance in biological tissues; this region of low absorbance by tissues and water spans much of the near-infrared wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.