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Thermally confined shell coating amplifies the photoacoustic conversion efficiency of nanoprobes

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Abstract

Efficient probes/contrast agents are highly desirable for good-performance photoacoustic (PA) imaging, where the PA signal amplitude of a probe is dominated by both its optical absorption and the conversion efficiency from absorbed laser energy to acoustic waves. Nanoprobes have a unique micromechanism of PA energy conversion due to the size effect, which, however, has not been quantitatively demonstrated and effectively utilized. Here, we present quantitative simulations of the PA signal production process for plasmonmediated nanoprobes based on the finite element analysis method, which were performed to provide a deep understanding of their PA conversion micromechanism. Moreover, we propose a method to amplify the PA conversion efficiency of nanoprobes through the use of thermally confined shell coating, which allows the active control of the conversion efficiency beyond that of conventional probes. Additionally, we deduced the dependence of the conversion efficiency on the shell properties. Gold-nanoparticles/polydimethylsiloxane nanocomposites were experimentally synthesized in the form of gel and microfilms to verify our idea and the simulation results agreed with the experiments. Our work paves the way for the rational design and optimization of nanoprobes with improved conversion efficiency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science and Institute of Laser Life Science College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China

    Yujiao Shi, Huan Qin, Sihua Yang & Da **ng

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  1. Yujiao Shi
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  2. Huan Qin
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  4. Da **ng
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Correspondence to Da **ng.

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Shi, Y., Qin, H., Yang, S. et al. Thermally confined shell coating amplifies the photoacoustic conversion efficiency of nanoprobes. Nano Res. 9, 3644–3655 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1234-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1234-3

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