Plasmonic Property and Stability of Core-Shell Au@SiO2 Nanostructures

Au nanorod (Au NR) is one of the most studied colloidal nanostructures for its tunable longitudinal surface plasmon resonance (SPRL) property in the near infrared region. And surface coating Au NRs into core-shell nanostructures is particularly important for further investigation and possible applications. In this paper, Au NRs colloids were synthesized using an improved seed method. Then as-prepared Au NRs were coated with SiO2 to form a core-shell nanostructure (Au@SiO2) with different shell thickness. And the influence of SiO2 shell on the SPRL of Au NRs was investigated based on the experimental results and FDTD simulations. Under the 808 nm laser irradiating, the stability of Au@SiO2 was studied. Compared with Au NRs, the Au@SiO2 is stable with increasing laser power (up to 8 W), whereas Au NRs undergo a shape deformation from rod to spherical nanoparticle when the laser power is 5 W. The high stability and tunable optical properties of core-shell structured Au@SiO2, along with advantages of SiO2, show that Au@SiO2 composites are promising in designing plasmonic photothermal properties or further applications in nanomedicine.