Evaluating Phospholipid‐Functionalized Gold Nanorods for In Vivo Applications

Gold nanorods (AuNRs) have attracted a great deal of attention due to their potential for use in wide range biomedical applications. However, production typically requires the relatively toxic cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) leading continued demand protocols detoxify them vivo In this study, robust and facile protocol displacement CTAB from surface AuNRs using phospholipids is presented. After displacement, not detectable by NMR spectroscopy, surface-enhanced Raman or pH-dependent ζ-potential measurements. The phospholipid functionalized demonstrated superior stability biocompatibility (IC50 > 200 µg mL−1) compared both polyelectrolyte are well tolerated vivo. Furthermore, they high near-infrared (NIR) absorbance produce large amounts heat under NIR illumination, hence such particles suited plasmonic medical