Photothermal therapy (PTT) is used widely to treat malignant tumors because of their advantages of simplicity, speed, and good targeting.

Shu-Hong Yu, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, and colleagues describe the synthesis of multifunctional Ag@Au@phenol formaldehyde resin (PFR) particles designed for killing tumor cells through photothermal conversion under the irradiation of near-infrared light. To improve the targeting of Ag@Au@PFR to tumor cells, folic acid (FA) was attached to the surface of the PFR shell. The resulting photothermal conversion nanomaterial exhibits good fluorescence, low toxicity, and effective targeting for the therapy of tumor cells.
The efficiency of the photothermal therapy (PTT) and fluorescence intensity can be tuned by simply changing the added amount of HAuCl₄, which introduces Au to the nanomaterial complex.

The synthesized photothermal conversion nanomaterial is important for the application of PTT and cell imaging in biomedicine.

• Synthesis of Multifunctional Ag@Au@Phenol Formaldehyde Resin (PFR) Particles Loaded with Folic Acids for Photothermal Therapy,
  P. Yang, Q.-Z.Xu, S.-Y. Jin,Y. Lu, Y. Zhao, S.-H.Yu,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2012.
  DOI: 10.1002/chem.201201173