Applications of gold nanorods in biomedical imaging and related fields

Gold nanorods (GNRs) have great potential widespread applications in biomedical imaging, drug delivery and photothermal therapy due to unique surface plasmon resonance (SPR) ranging from visible to near infrared (NIR) region, facile synthesis and easy functionalization. In this review, the recent progress of GNRs in bioimaging, drug delivery, photothermal therapy and theranostics is summarized and the recommendations for the future work on GNRs are also covered.