Multifunctional Fe₃O₄ @Au nanoeggs as photothermal agents for selective killing of nosocomial and antibiotic-resistant bacteria

A study was conducted to demonstrate the use of Fe₃O ₄@Au nanoeggs, as photothermal agents for selective killing of nosocomial and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The study demonstrated that the M(H) hysteresis curve for the nanoparticles (NPs) was completely reversible, indicating that these NPs exhibited superparamagnetic characteristics. It was also demonstrated that the saturation moment per unit mass for the Fe ₃O₄@Au nanoeggs was 0.04 emu g^-1 at 10000 Oe. It was also expected that the Fe₃O₄@Au nanoegg-targeted bacteria will have significantly larger magnetic, despite each nanoegg having small magnetic moment. Thymol blue was employed in Tris buffer as a temperature indicator, to evaluate the photothermal behavior of the Fe₃O ₄@Au nanoeggs.