Inkjet-Printed Gold Nanostars for Photothermal treatments

Through a collaboration with Univ. of Pavia and Univ. of Turku (FI).  It is promising for their use in stimulated neural cell growth.

abs. Inkjet printing technology has brought significant advances in patterning various functional materials that can meet important challenges in personalized medical treatments. Indeed, patterning of photothermal active anisotropic gold nanoparticles is particularly promising for the development of low-cost tools for localized photothermal therapy. In the present work, stable inks containing PEGylated gold nanostars (GNSs) were prepared and inkjet printed on a pigment-coated paper substrate. A significant photothermal effect (Delta T congruent to 20 degrees C) of the printed patterns was observed under near infrared (NIR) excitation of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the GNS with low laser intensity (I congruent to 0.2 W/cm(2)). Besides the pronounced photothermal effect, we also demonstrated, as an additional valuable effect, the release of a model fluorescent thiolterminated Bodipy dye (BDP-SH) from the printed gold surface, both under bulk heating and NIR irradiation. These preliminary results suggest the way of the development of a new class of low-cost, disposable, and smart devices for localized thermal treatments combined with temperature-triggered drug release.