Gold Nanoparticle Coated Carbon Nanotube Ring with Enhanced Photothermal Conversion Property for Raman and Photoacoustic Imaging

Authors

• F Wang
• XY Yang
• B Ning
• MG Harp
• SH Culp
• S Hu
• P Huang
• L Nie
• JY Chen
• XY Chen

Abstract

Herein, we report a new type of CNTR coated with gold nanoparticles (CNTR@AuNPs) using CNTR as a template and surface attached redox-active polymer as a reducing agent, as displayed in Figure 1. This nanostructure of CNTR bundle embedded in the gap of closely attached AuNPs can play multifunctional roles as a Raman probe to detect cancer cells and a PA contrast agent or high resolution in vivo imaging of the tumor region. In vivo imaging results demonstrate that the CNTR@AuNP could provide a highly detectable and quantitative indicator for in vivo PA microscopy imaging. The extinction intensity of CNTR@AuNP is about 120-fold higher than CNTR at 808 nm, and the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) signal of CNTR@AuNP is about 110 times stronger than CNTR, presumably due to the combined effects of enhanced coupling between the embedded CNTR and the plasmon mode of the closely attached AuNPs, and the strong electromagnetic field in the cavity of the AuNP shell originated from the intercoupling of AuNPs. The greatly enhanced PA signal and photothermal conversion property of CNTR@AuNP were further successfully employed for imaging and imaging-guided cancer therapy in two tumor xenograft models.

Scientific Focus Area: Chemical Biology

This page was last updated on Friday, March 26, 2021