Wet-chemical synthesis and characteristics of Au nanoshell

Gold nanoshells were prepared by an easy wet-chemical method, with Ag nanoparticles used as the templates. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicated that the shells were sphere in shape, the size was homogenous, being about 20 nm, and no hard agglomerates were observed. The plasma resonance absorption of gold was tuned from visible to near-infrared (NIR) with the increased volume of HAuCl4. The temperature grads (ΔT) of the gold nanoshell hydrosol under the exposure of an 808-nm optical fiber laser with different power densities were measured. The highest ΔT was 30℃ (5 W/cm2, irradiation area was 2 cm2). This kind of gold nanoshell hydrosol is a promising material to be used in biomedicine such as photothermal cancer therapy, and its special photothermal convert property will photothermally trigger drug release.