Gold-silica nanoshells are tunable plasmonic nanoparticles that can be fabricated to exhibit strong resonances in the near-infrared (NIR) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Since these particles consist of a gold, they are biocompatible and can be used for optical heating when excited with NIR light. NIR light has the ability to penetrate into tissue as deep as 3 cm with minimal damage induction, and this technique has already shown promise in the treatment of solid tumors. Previous studies have used NIR sensitive silica-gold core shell nanostructures (gold nanoshells) to amply the effects of photothermal ablation in malignant cancers. In this investigation, we exploit the resonant photothermal excitation of gold nanoshells at 808 nm and study the relationship between laser power excitation and local temperature increase. Photothermal heating was achieved by exciting various concentrations of PEG functionalized gold nanoshells (mPEG-GNS) with a continuous 808 nm diode laser under different power conditions. A Teledyne FLIR thermal imaging camera was placed horizontal to the sample to measure temperature within the targeted area. As the concentration of mPEG-GNS increased, the amount of power output from the laser needed to reach a target temperature of 50C throughout the region of interest decreased. Further, the heating was evenly dispersed across the sample of nanoparticles. These results confirm that conversion of light energy to local heating is achievable using mPEG-GNS.

Near-Infrared sensitive silica-gold core shell nanostructures for photothermal ablation

ACS Fall 2021

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