title: Simple control of surface topography of gold nanoshells by a surfactant-less seeded-growth method.
abstract: We report the synthesis of branched gold nanoshells (BGNS) through a seeded-growth surfactant-less method. This was achieved by decorating chitosan-Pluronic F127 stabilized poly(lactic-co-gycolic) acid nanoparticles (NPs) with Au seeds (NP-seed), using chitosan as an electrostatic self-assembling agent. Branched shells with different degrees of anisotropy and optical response were obtained by modulating the ratios of HAuCl4/K2CO3 growth solution, ascorbic acid (AA) and NP-seed precursor. Chitosan and AA were crucial in determining the BGNS size and structure, acting both as coreductants and structure directing growth agents. Preliminary cytotoxicity experiments point to the biocompatibility of the obtained BGNS, allowing their potential use in biomedical applications. In particular, these nanostructures with "hybrid" compositions, which combine the features of gold nanoshells and nanostars showed a better performance as surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy probes in detecting intracellular cell components than classical smoother nanoshells.
authors: Grupo de Física de Coloides y Polímeros, Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela , Santiago de Compostela 15782, Spain.
authors: Antonio
authors: A
authors: Topete
authors: Manuel
authors: M
authors: Alatorre-Meda
authors: Eva M
authors: EM
authors: Villar-Álvarez
authors: Adriana
authors: A
authors: Cambón
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Barbosa
authors: Pablo
authors: P
authors: Taboada
authors: Víctor
authors: V
authors: Mosquera
mesh_terms: D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D057145:Nanoshells / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010316:Particle Size; D020442:Poloxamer / Q000737:chemistry*; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D000077182:Polylactic Acid-Polyglycolic Acid Copolymer; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D020442:Poloxamer; D000077182:Polylactic Acid-Polyglycolic Acid Copolymer; D011100:Polyglycolic Acid; D019344:Lactic Acid; D006046:Gold; D048271:Chitosan