Gold Nanorods in Photodynamic Therapy, as Hyperthermia Agents, and in Near-Infrared Optical Imaging

摘要

Decreasing the size of a material to the nanometer scale makes it sensitive to a further decrease in size or a change in shape. Among the nanomaterials that are currently being developed, gold nanoparticles are extensively exploited in organisms because of their good stability and biocompatibil-ity. However, in biomedical applications that require a considerably deeper penetration of near-infrared (NIR) light, in which both blood and soft tissues are highly penetrable, a different type of gold nanostructure is required. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a phenomenon in which free electrons in the nanostructures collectively oscillate and scatter or absorb the incident electromagnetic wave.