Gold nanorods for applications in biological imaging

Abstract

Two-Photon luminescence (TPL) from gold nanorods shows considerable potential in biological imaging for high resolution, low photo-damage, tunable near infra-red (NIR) longitudinal band, polarization dependence, ability to conjugate to bio-molecules and low toxicity. Here we demonstrate the application of gold nanorods as TPL imaging agents by studying the gold nanorods taken up by Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells using both confocal imaging and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). The characteristic luminescence lifetime of gold nanorods is found to be less than 100 ps, which can be used to distinguish gold nanorods from other fluorescent labels and endogenous fluorophores in lifetime imaging

Effect of Size, Shape, and Surface Modification on Cytotoxicity of Gold Nanoparticles to Human HEp‐2 and Canine MDCK Cells

“…GNRs were synthesized via the same procedure but with 4 different aspect ratios, GNSs, and polymer-(polystryrenesulfonate (PSS) and poly(allylamine) hydrochloride(PAH)) coated GNRs have been applied to two cell lines at different exposure time and particle dosages. GNRs of aspect ratio of 3 are approximately 40 nm long, which had excellent potential in biological imaging and sensing applications [39][40][41]. PSS and PAH have been used in multilayer membrane for longterm graft transplantation [42].…”

Dye-doped polystyrene-coated gold nanorods: towards wavelength tuneable SPASER

“…The L mode is sensitive to the shape (aspect ratio) of the particle and can be synthetically tuned [16][17][18] across a broad spectral range covering the visible and near-infrared regions. A GNR-based SPASER thus has advantages of wavelength tunability and polarization sensitivity [19,20]. In addition, the threshold of a nanorodbased SPASER can be much lower than that of a sphere-based structure [21], as the imaginary part of the dielectric function of gold varies with wavelength and has a minimum near 700 nm [22].…”