Critical Enhancement of Photothermal Effect by Integrated Nanocomposites of Gold Nanorods and Iron Oxide on Graphene Oxide

Abstract

Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering & TechnologyReceived July 15, 2013, Accepted July 23, 2013Irradiation of gold nanorods (GNRs) with laser light corresponding to the longitudinal surface plasmonoscillation results in rapid conversion of electromagnetic energy into heat, a phenomenon commonly known asthe photothermal effect of GNRs. Herein, we propose a facile strategy for increasing the photothermalconversion efficiency of GNRs by integration to form graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites. Moreover,conjugation of iron oxide (IO) with the GO-GNR nanohybrid allowed magnetic enrichment at a specific targetsite and the separated GO-IO-GNR assembly was rapidly heated by laser irradiation. The present GO-IO-GNRnanocomposites hold great promise for application in various biomedical fields, including surface enhancedRaman spectroscopy imaging, photoacoustic tomography imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, andphotothermal cancer therapy.Key Words : Photothermal effect, Longitudinal plasmon resonance, Gold nanorods, Iron oxide, Graphene oxideIntroductionThe recent rapid evolution of nanoscience and nano-technology has propelled the development of various multi-functional solid nanoparticles with unique chemical andphysical properties for biomedical applications as multi-modal molecular imaging probes and therapeutic agents.