CC BY
2The 30th International Conference on Advanced Laser Technologies LM-P-13
ALT'23
Laser-ablative synthesis of alternative plasmonic nanomaterials
for biomedical applications
M.S. Savinov1, A.A. Popov1, G.V. Tikhonowski S I.V. Zelepukin12, A.I. Pastukhov3, S.M.
Klimentov1, A.V. Kabashin13
1-MEPhI, Institute of Engineering Physics for Biomedicine (PhysBio), Moscow, Russia 2- Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia 3- Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, LP3, Marseille, France
email: MSSavinov@mephi.ru
The field of nanotechnology plays an increasingly important role in the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for cancer treatment. Among them, targeted photothermal therapy (PTT) and related photoacoustic imaging (PAI) are among the most promising methods. These techniques are based on the selective heating of nanoparticles (NPs), localized in tumor, by external light radiation. Plasmonic nanomaterials and especially gold (Au) NPs are widely used in PTT and PAI. One major drawback of the classical plasmonic NPs is related to the spectral position of their plasmonic feature. For example, small spherical Au NPs (5-50 nm) have plasmonic peak around 520-540 nm, which is far from the biological tissue transparency window located between 650 and 950 nm. This spectral mismatch problem can be solved by using an engineered Au-based nanostructures, which however have several major limitations. There is another solution to the plasmonic mismatch problem, which implies application of alternative plasmonic materials, such as TiN, ZrN, HfN, etc. These NPs look much more promising for PTT than traditional plasmonic materials due to several factors, including spectral position of their plasmonic peak in the window of relative tissue transparency combined with their low cost and high availability.
However, synthesis of colloidal solution of these NPs, suitable for biomedical applications, is challenging. Traditional synthesis methods are based on approaches of colloidal chemistry, which often results in NPs surface contamination and related reduced biocompatibility. An alternative laser-based technology for the colloidal nanomaterials synthesis is pulsed laser ablation in liquids (PLAL). This method makes possible synthesis of stable colloidal solutions of clean NPs with controllable physico-chemical properties. The unique surface purity of the laser-synthesized nanomaterials, as well as the high productivity and simplicity of this method, have led to a wide application of PLAL-synthesized NPs in multiple biomedical applications.
Here, we present our recent results on laser synthesis of alternative plasmonic NPs based on TiN and ZrN, their surface modification and biological assessment as sensitizers of PTT and contrast agents for PA imaging.
This study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 22-72-00015).
