Nanoparticle Contrast Agents for Enhanced Microwave Imaging and Thermal Treatment of Breast Cancer
Abstract
The microwave absorption characteristics of gold nanorod particles in aqueous solution were explored in two sets of experiments. The first experiments employed heating as an indirect indicator of microwave absorption at 4 GHz in a waveguide setup. Several solutions using gold nanoparticles in concentrations up to 5 mM with two different particle aspect ratios up to 4-to-1 showed little heating attributable to the nanoparticles but some heating attributable to CTAB in the solution, which is necessary in synthesis to prevent particle aggregation. Swept open-ended coaxial probe measurements from 0.5 to 20 GHz and spot frequency cavity measurements at 2.19 and 5 GHz likewise showed little absorption attributable to the gold nanoparticles. The results suggest that small aspect ratio gold nanoparticles at low concentrations are likely not highly effective microwave absorbers. Larger aspect ratio gold nanoparticles may still hold promise as microwave theranostic agents.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA565499
Entities
People
- Alan V. Sahakian
- Xu Li
Organizations
- Northwestern University