FeO@Au@mSiO as an enhancing nanoplatform for Rose Bengal photodynamic activity.

A novel nanoplatform composed of three types of materials with different functionalities, specifically core-shell FeO@Au nanoparticles encapsulated near the outer surface of mesoporous silica (mSiO) nanoparticles, has been successfully synthesised and used to enhance the efficiency of a photosensitiser, namely Rose Bengal, in singlet oxygen generation. FeO is responsible for the unusual location of the FeO@Au nanoparticle, while the plasmonic shell acts as an optical antenna. In addition, the mesoporous silica matrix firmly encapsulates Rose Bengal by chemical bonding inside the pores, thus guaranteeing its photostability, and in turn making the nanosystem biocompatible.

Hybrid magnetite-gold nanoparticles as bifunctional magnetic-plasmonic systems: three representative cases.

Hybrid systems based on magnetite and gold nanoparticles have been extensively used as bifunctional materials for bio- and nano-technology. The properties of these composites are assumed to be closely related to the magnetite to gold mass ratio and to the geometry of the resulting hetero-structures. To illustrate this, we compare and analyze the optical and magnetic properties of core-shell, dumbbell-like dimers and chemical cross-linked pairs of magnetite and gold nanoparticles in detail.