Facile synthesis of monodisperse superparamagnetic Fe ₃O ₄ Core@hybrid@Au shell nanocomposite for bimodal imaging and photothermal therapy

A simple seed-mediated growth route is developed to fabricate monodisperse, uniform superparamagnetic Fe ₃O ₄ core/gold shell structured nanocomposites with tunable sizes and optical properties, in which gold seed formation and attachment onto the core surface via S-Au covalent bonding proceeds almost simultaneously in the one-pot synthesis. The as-prepared nanocomposite is demonstrated to have a great potential for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided, focused photothermal tumor therapy under near-IR laser radiation.