Golden single-walled carbon nanotubes prepared using double layer polysaccharides bridge for photothermal therapy

Golden single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were prepared by growing gold nanoparticles onto the bilayer polysaccharide functionalized SWNTs. The layer-by-layer self-assembly of sodium alginate and chitosan on SWNTs provided an ideal surface with high density of active metal-binding groups such as amino and carboxylic acid groups, and then an approach of seed growth was adopted to facilitate the formation of gold nanoparticles coated SWNTs. The resulting golden SWNT hybrids have good water dispersibility and biocompatibility and tend to enter cancer cells. Interestingly, they have an enhanced NIR absorption and effectively transfer NIR laser into heat. The material can quickly cause localized hyperthermia, resulting in rapid cell death, and therefore appears to act as a highly effective photothermal converter for cancer ablation.