Gold nano-smolder for biological tissue manipulation

Thanks to their unique optical and electromagnetic properties, noble-metal nanoparticles are proven very useful in many scientific fields, from nanotechnology to biology, including detection of cancer cells. Irradiated gold nanoparticles, as a nano-smolder could be widely used in biomedical contexts such as tumor therapy. Laser destruction of a cancerous tissue depends on thermal and physical properties of the tissue, therefore temperature quantification of an irradiated metallic nanoparticle in different materials could be followed by interesting applications. In this research we quantify the temperature of irradiated gold nanoparticles in paraffin which is the most commonly used material for embedding of biological tissues in pathology. We have shown that the temperature increase rate for irradiated gold nanoparticles with diameters of 78 nm, 97 nm, and 149 nm are 1.31, 1.40, and 2.28 ◦C/mW, respectively. Considering that the conductivity of a biological tissue is an important parameter on temperature raise and destruction, these results could yield a valuable insight into the cancer therapy.