Scientists have developed a variety of nanoparticles that can be made to heat up when excited by an external energy source. These have the potential to revolutionize how cancer is treated, but they can be hard to control because the heat produced is unpredictable. Tumors have to be removed carefully, and destroying nearby healthy tissue can be detrimental to the patient.
Now researchers at the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan have created gold nanoparticles with built-in diamond nanocrystal thermometers that can report their temperature when excited.
While the gold nanorods heat up in response to a laser light, the fluorescent nanodiamonds glow due to the increased temperature. A light detector can be used to spot the illumination coming from the nanodiamonds, together with the nanoparticles resulting in a thermometer for thermal nanoparticles.
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