Co-enhancement of fluorescence and singlet oxygen generation by silica-coated gold nanorods core-shell nanoparticle

Metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) as a newly recognized technology has been attracting considerable attention and is widely used in fluorescence-based technology. In this paper, we reported a novel distance-dependent MEF and metal-enhanced singlet oxygen generation phenomenon based on silica-coated gold nanorods (AuNRs@SiO2) core-shell structure with tetra-substituted carboxyl aluminum phthalocyanine (AlC4Pc) that serve as both fluorophore and photosensitizer. When the AlC4Pc was linked on the surface of AuNRs@SiO2, the fluorescence intensity and singlet oxygen productivity varied with the thickness difference of silica shell from 2.1 to 28.6 nm. The co-enhancement effect reached the maximum of 7-fold and 2.1-fold, respectively, when the separation distance was 10.6 nm. These unique characteristics make the prepared core-shell nanoparticles promising for MEF-based biological imaging and photodynamics therapy.