Silica-gold nanoshell@graphene: a novel class of plasmonic nanoagents for photothermal cancer therapy

Abstract

‎In the current work‎, ‎the optical properties of graphene wrapped gold nanoshells (GGNSs) with silica core for different sizes and geometries are investigated based on effective medium and Gans theories in tumor tissue‎. ‎In addition‎, ‎the bioheat transfer equations are used to obtain the temperature distribution in the kidney tumor and its surrounding medium‎. ‎The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of GGNSs can be easily tuned inside a large region of biological windows by controlling the thicknesses of gold and graphene layers and their aspect ratios for spheroidal nanoshells‎. ‎Also‎, ‎we show that oblate spheroidal GGNSs due to high temperature rise are very effective for photothermal cancer therapy‎. ‎Moreover‎, ‎the amount of temperature rise for spherical nanoshells increases as the thickness of graphene shell increases‎, ‎while it is independent of the thickness of graphene shell for spheroidal GNSs‎. ‎Finally‎, ‎the regions of tumor tissue with permanent thermal damage are determined by calculating thermal damage in tumor tissue‎. ‎Our results demonstrate that GGNSs have a high potential for photothermal cancer therapy.