Synergistic enhanced photocatalytic and photothermal activity of Au@TiO2 nanopellets against human epithelial carcinoma cells

The photocatalytic and plasmonic photothermal cancer cell-killing activity of the metallic Au-capped TiO2 (Au@TiO2) composite colloidal nanopellets has been investigated on HeLa cells under UV-visible (350–600 nm) light irradiation. The Au@TiO2 composite nanopellets with the uniform Au-capped TiO2 structure were successfully synthesized by simple reduction of HAuCl4 on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles. The morphological structure and surface...