Figure  2c showed the morphology and the size distribution of silica-coated Tariquidar mouse GNRs; the sGNRs were approximately spherical with a size of about 80 nm. The sGNRs exhibited monodispersed, well-defined core-shell structures. The GNR core, with 50 nm in length and 20 nm in width, was prepared by seed-mediated template-assisted method. The silica shell has a thickness of 10 to 20 nm. Figure  2d is the HR-TEM image of an individual

sGNR, showing that the silica shell has a well-ordered mesopore structure. Figure  2e,f showed that the sGNRs combined on the CX-6258 manufacturer surface of MWNTs mainly along their sidewalls, highly suggesting that sGNRs successfully attached to MWNTs. The well-distributed sGNRs deposited onto the surface of MWNTs showed that the CNT pre-treatment was effective, which resulted in many active sites on the MWNTs. Figure  2f showed that the structure and the crystallinity of MWNTs and sGNRs did not change after the cross-link. Almost 90% of sGNRs were successfully cross-linked with MWNTs; the average size of RGD-sGNRs/MWNTs was almost 300 nm in length and 50 nm in width. Figure 2 TEM and HR-TEM images. (a, b) MWNTs, (c, d) sGNRs, and (e,

f) MWNTs/sGNRs. Binding sites of sGNRs and MWNTs Figure  3 showed TEM images of the different binding sites of sGNRs and MWNTs. According to the TEM observations, the sGNRs decorated the surface of MWNTs SYN-117 mainly along their sidewalls (Figure  3a) and partly connected to the WNT ends (Figure  3b), which may be attributed to the fact that the amount of amino groups

on the long axis of GNRs is more than the amount on the short axis of GNRs. Figure 3 TEM images of the different binding sites of sGNRs and MWNTs. (a) sGNRs attached on the surface of WNT along the sidewalls. (b) sGNRs attached on the end of WNT. UV-vis spectra of gold nanorods Figure  4 showed the UV-vis absorbance spectra of GNR-CTAB, GNR-SiO2, and sGNRs in the wavelength PtdIns(3,4)P2 range of 400 ~ 900 nm. The spectrum of GNR-CTAB showed that GNR-CTAB had two absorption bands: a weak short-wavelength band around 515 nm and a strong long-wavelength band around 715 nm. Moreover, we observed that the plasmon peaks of GNR-SiO2 exhibited no significant changes in peak width or position, so the silica modification could improve only the biocompatibility of GNRs and did not change the two absorption bands of GNRs. After being modified with the second amino silane coupling agent, the special absorption peaks of sGNRs exhibited a little redshift (approximately 6 nm), which may be attributed to the fact that the coated silica layer became thick and the size of sGNRs became big.Figure  5 showed the UV-vis absorbance spectra of MWNTs and sGNRs/MWNTs. MWNTs exhibited a relative low absorption peak at NIR, and after MWNTs covalently bound with sGNRs, the sGNRs/MWNTs exhibited marked NIR absorption enhancement.