Development of graphene oxide-wrapped gold nanorods as robust nanoplatform for ultrafast near-infrared SERS bioimaging

Abstract

Xuejun Qiu,1 Xinru You,2 Xing Chen,2 Haolin Chen,1 Arvind Dhinakar,3 Songhao Liu,1 Zhouyi Guo,1 Jun Wu,2,4 Zhiming Liu1 1SATCM Third Grade Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Photonics Technology, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, 2Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Sensor Technology and Biomedical Instrument, School of Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada; 4Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China Abstract: The rapid development of near-infrared surface-enhanced Raman scattering (NIR SERS) imaging technology has attracted strong interest from scientists and clinicians due to its narrow spectral bandwidth, low background interference, and deep imaging depth. In this report, the graphene oxide (GO)-wrapped gold nanorods (GO@GNRs) were developed as a smart and robust nanoplatform for ultrafast NIR SERS bioimaging. The fabricated GO@GNRs could efficiently load various NIR probes, and the in vitro evaluation indicated that the nanoplatform could exhibit a higher NIR SERS activity in comparison with traditional gold nanostructures. The GOs were prepared by directly pyrolyzing citric acid for greater convenience, and GO@GNRs were fabricated via a facile synthesis strategy. Higher NIR SERS activity, facile synthesis method, excellent biocompatibility, and superb stability make the GO@GNRs/probe complex promising nanoprobes for NIR SERS-based bioimaging applications. Keywords: gold nanorods, graphene oxide, near-infrared bioimaging, surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Keywords

• Gold nanorods
• graphene oxide
• near-infrared bioimaging
• surface-enhanced Raman scattering