LAUSR

We investigated the application of gold nanoshell particles as optical sensors and contrast agents to study the blood functional parameters. Gold nanoshell particles with a core size of 1 μm that exhibit two prominent plasmonic peaks at 750 and 830 nm were developed. The peaks correspond to the wavelengths typically used to study the oxygen saturation of the blood. The plasmonic properties of gold nanoshells in media with various refractive indices were studied. Glucose samples with concentrations 0, 15, and 20%w/v in water were used. The 750 and 830 nm plasmonic peaks exhibit peak wavelength shifts of 63.77 ± 49.40 nm and 31.18 ± 20.94 nm per unit refractive index change. The optical properties of blood samples mixed with gold nanoshells were also measured. The optical absorption of blood samples increased by 7% at these wavelengths in the presence of the nanoshells. The plasmonic peaks at 750 and 830 nm showed a 3.57 ± 0.56 and 1.44 ± 0.55 percentage variation in absorbance for a 1% change in hematocrit. The enhanced optical absorption at these wavelengths suggests that these particles are effective optical sensors/contrast agents for multimodal optical and photoacoustic sensing and imaging.