Thus, due to all these properties, gold nanospheres (GNSs)
have been already applied to cellular imaging and medical
applications. While, the synthesis of branched and flowershaped
gold nanoparticles (GNFs) is a fairly recent development, they have additional valuable properties for
bioapplications. In fact, their localized surface plasmon
resonance (LSPR) can be tuned from the visible to the nearinfrared
(NIR) region and their branched shape dramatically
enhances their optical properties. However, a recent study
demonstrated that they are of higher toxicity than the GNSs.