Gold-coated halloysite nanotubes as tunable plasmonic platforms

We propose the use of natural Halloysite Hollow Nanotubes (HNTs) as supports to generate plasmonic platforms with remotely triggered heating capacity. The chemical modification and subsequent coating with nanostructured gold either in the form of individually dispersed particles or by forming a shell with variable thickness and interconnectivity has been studied. The dielectric nature of the silica in conjunction with the plasmonic gold layer allows a flexible optical response with tunable maximum absorptions within the visible to Near-Infrared (NIR) range. The generation of hollow gold nanotubes using halloysite as a sacrificial template is also demonstrated.