Research in Light-nanoparticle interactions published in Nanoletters.
Together with collaborators in the NKI (The Netherlands Cancer Institute), we showed that in their interactions with cells and with pulsed NIR light, gold nanorods can lose their attractive optical properties. Specifically the particles undergo plasmonic interactions with neighbouring particles in the confines of sub-cellular organelles in which they can be sequestered, and /or undergo thermal reshaping if the fluences incident on them cross certain thresholds. The result is that the strong absorption peaks in the NIR are lost. The consequence of this is that photothermal therapeutic effects are compromised when using NIR wavelengths. On the other hand these effects can still be observed when green wavelengths are used.
For more information: Dr. Srirang Manohar (S.Manohar@utwente.nl)