Folding Up of Gold Nanoparticle Strings into Plasmonic Vesicles for Enhanced Photoacoustic Imaging

Yijing Liu; Jie He; Kuikun Yang; Chenglin Yi; Yi Liu; Liming Nie; Niveen M Khashab; Xiaoyuan Chen; Zhihong Nie

doi:10.1002/anie.201508616

Folding Up of Gold Nanoparticle Strings into Plasmonic Vesicles for Enhanced Photoacoustic Imaging

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 Dec 21;54(52):15809-12. doi: 10.1002/anie.201508616. Epub 2015 Nov 11.

Authors

Yijing Liu¹, Jie He¹, Kuikun Yang¹, Chenglin Yi¹, Yi Liu¹, Liming Nie², Niveen M Khashab³, Xiaoyuan Chen⁴, Zhihong Nie⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (USA).
² Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and Nanomedicine (LOMIN), National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (USA).
³ Smart Hybrid Materials (SHMs) Lab, Department of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Advanced Membranes and Porous Materials Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900 (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
⁴ Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and Nanomedicine (LOMIN), National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (USA). shawn.chen@nih.gov.
⁵ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (USA). znie@umd.edu.

Abstract

The stepwise self-assembly of hollow plasmonic vesicles with vesicular membranes containing strings of gold nanoparticles (NPs) is reported. The formation of chain vesicles can be controlled by tuning the density of the polymer ligands on the surface of the gold NPs. The strong absorption of the chain vesicles in the near-infrared (NIR) region leads to a much higher efficiency in photoacoustic (PA) imaging than for non-chain vesicles. The chain vesicles were further employed for the encapsulation of drugs and the NIR light triggered release of payloads. This work not only offers a new platform for controlling the hierarchical self-assembly of NPs, but also demonstrates that the physical properties of the materials can be tailored by controlling the spatial arrangement of NPs within assemblies to achieve a better performance in biomedical applications.

Keywords: block copolymers; gold nanoparticles; photoacoustic imaging; self-assembly; vesicles.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Acoustics*
Gold / chemistry*
Metal Nanoparticles*
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Microscopy, Electron, Transmission

Substances

Gold

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding