Experimental and theoretical investigation of the photothermal effect in gold nanorods

In this work, gold nanorods (GNRs) were synthesized using a seed-mediated route and their photothermal properties were investigated experimentally as well as theoretically. The structure and optical properties of the samples were also characterized by their X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, and Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) images. The HRTEM images confirmed that the synthesized GNRs possess a length of about 33 +/- 0.3 nm and a diameter of 11.5 +/- 0.2 nm; therefore the obtained GNRs have an aspect ratio of about 3 having a plasmon resonance peak at 760 nm wavelength. Since the produced photothermal heat of the synthesized GNRs by near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation can be applied in photothermal therapy, a photothermal experiment was performed for GNR suspensions in water as well as MoS2 aqueous solution. The photothermal results confirm that the temperature of the MoS2-GNR suspension increases with GNR concentration increasing after 10 min laser irradiation. Then numerical simulation was used to compare its thermal properties with the results of the photothermal experiment for a GNR sample. Finally, the outcome indicated that GNRs and MoS2-GNR suspension can be used as two good candidates in photothermal therapy and also there is a fairly good agreement between experimental and theoretical results.

Automated summary

In this study, gold nanorods were synthesized and their photothermal properties were experimentally and theoretically investigated. The results showed that gold nanorods can be applied in photothermal therapy, with a good agreement between experimental and theoretical results.