Plasmonic nanoparticles are used in many biomedical applications, ranging from sensing to in vivo imaging and photothermal transduction. The tunable morphology of nanostars including metallic composition, spike length, spike sharpness, and overall size greatly impacts their optical and plasmonic properties. Here, we highlight 3 distinct classes of nanostar-based particle groups where the effect of tuning these properties was investigated: improved gold nanostars (GNS), bimetallic nanostars (BNS), and caged nanostars (CNS). After characterization and simulation via FDTD modeling, particles were assessed for their utility in small-molecule detection, gene probe-based plasmonic sensing, in vivo tumor imaging and detection, and photothermal transduction.
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