Engineering Gold Nanorod–Copper Sulfide Heterostructures with Enhanced Photothermal Conversion Efficiency and Photostability

Abstract

Plasmonic gold nanorods (Au NRs)-copper sulfide heterostructures have recently attracted much attention owing to the synergistically enhanced photothermal properties. However, the facile synthesis and interface tailoring of Au NRs-copper sulfide heterostructures remain a formidable challenge. In this study, the rational design and synthesis of Au NRs-Cu S heterostructures via a one-pot hydrothermal process is reported. Specifically, core-shell and dumbbell-like Au NRs-Cu S heterostructures are obtained with well-controlled interfaces by employing the Au NRs with different aspect ratios. Both core-shell and dumbbell-like Au NRs-Cu S have proven effective as photothermal therapy agents, which offer both high photothermal stability and significant photothermal conversion efficiency up to 62%. The finite-difference time domain simulation results confirm the coupling effect that leads to the enhanced local field as well as the optical absorption at the heterostructure interface. Importantly, these Au NRs-Cu S heterostructures can be compatibly used as an 808 nm laser-driven photothermal therapy agents for the efficient photothermal therapy of cancer cells in vitro. This study will provide new insight into the design of other noble metal-semiconductor heterostructures for a broad range of applications utilizing surface plasmon resonance enhancement phenomena.

NIR Stimulus-Responsive PdPt Bimetallic Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery and Chemo-Photothermal Therapy

“…PdPt, PdPt@HA and DOX@PdPt@HA NPs (20 µg/mL) were irradiated by 808 nm laser (0.9 W/cm 2 , LEO Photonic Co., Ltd. Shenzhen, China) for 10 min and the real-time temperature was recorded and infrared thermographic maps were obtained by the infrared thermal imaging camera (LaserSight, Optris, Germany). The photothermal conversion efficiency (η) of PdPt, PdPt@HA and DOX@PdPt@HA NPs was calculated by following the published equations [ 34 ].…”

Light‐Responsive Inorganic Biomaterials for Biomedical Applications

“…The coupling effect of a gold nanorod and copper sulfide could enhance the local field and optical absorption at the surface, and decrease the scattering loss of the gold nanorod core, to approach higher photothermal conversion efficiency. [168] Through rationally designing the heterostructures of photoresponsive nanomaterials, not only the efficiency of light energy utilization can be improved, but also the multifunctional photoresponsive nanomaterials can be further developed. These inorganic nanomaterials can simultaneously be also considered as crosslinkers in hydrogels, carriers in drug delivery devices, and bioactive agents in tissue engineering, which the small molecules are unable to do.…”

Controlled growth of plasmonic heterostructures and their applications

“…Great efforts have been made to explore the physical and chemical properties observed with asymmetric heterostructures [140][141][142][143][144][145][146]. An abundance of synergistic properties from the asymmetric heterocrystals have received wide attention, such as the heterojunction-induced photogenerated carrier separation, the plasmon-enhanced sunlight harvesting and the plasmon-induced hot-electron transfer from metal nanostructures into strong coupled semiconductors [147][148][149][150]. The essence of asymmetric synthesis for metal-semiconductor heterostructures is selective growth of the shell, which comes from the anisotropic growth environments and kinetics parameters.…”