Temperature Measurements of a Gold Nanosphere Solution in Response to Light-Induced Hyperthermia

Gold nanospheres (GNSs), biocompatible nanoparticles that can be designed to absorb visible and near-infrared light, have shown great potential in induced thermal treatment of cancer cells via Plasmonic Photothermal Therapy (PPTT) [3]. In this study, light induced heating of a water-based dispersion of 20 nm diameter GNSs was investigated at their plasmon resonance wavelength (λ = 520 nm). Temperature changes of the solution at the point of light irradiation were measured experimentally. A heat transfer model was used to verify the experimental data. The effect of two key parameters, light intensity and particle concentration, on the solution’s temperature was investigated. The experimental results showed a significant temperature rise of the GNS solution compared to de-ionized water. The temperature rise of GNS solution was linearly proportional to the concentration of GNS (from 0.25–1.0 C, C = 1×10¹³ particles per ml) and the light intensity (from 0.25 to 0.5 W cm⁻²). The experimental data matches the modeling results adequately. Overall, it can be concluded that the hyperthermic ablation of cancer cells via GNS can be achieved by controlled by the light intensity and GNS concentration. A novel component of this study is that a high power lamp source was used instead of a high power laser. This means that only low cost components were used in the current experimental set-up. Moreover, by using suitable filters and white light from the high power lamp source, it is possible to obtain light in many wavelength bands for the study of other nanoparticles with different plasmon wavelength ranges. The current results represtent just one example in this versatile experimental set-up developed. It should be noted, however, the plasmon resonance wavelength used in this study is not within the therapeutic window (750–1300 nm) [13]. Therefore, the GNSs used in this experiment are only applicable to the surface induced thermal treatment of cancer cells, for instance, in the skin.