Fabrication of gold nanorods-doped, bovine serum albumin microstructures via multiphoton excited photochemistry

In this study, three-dimensional (3D) crosslinked bovine serum albumin (BSA) microstructures containing gold nanorods (AuNRs) were fabricated via multiphoton excited photochemistry using Rose Bengal (RB) as the photoactivator. To retain AuNRs in the 3D crosslinked BSA microstructures, the laser wavelength was chosen for two-photon RB absorption for improved two-photon crosslinking efficiency, but not for enhancing the longitudinal plasmon resonance of AuNRs which may result in photothermal damage of AuNRs. Furthermore, with two-photon excitation of RB via AuNRs plasmonics, the laser power can be reduced by about 30%. As a result, 3D BSA microstructures containing AuNRs can be successfully fabricated. The AuNRs-doped BSA microstructures can be applied in biomedical scaffolds with plasmonic properties such as two-photon luminescence imaging and photothermal therapy.