PEGylated Copper Nanowires as a Novel Photothermal Therapy Agent.Metal nanowires are promising for their applications including electrical connectors, transparent conductive electrodes and conductive additives, but the use of metal nanowires as photothermal agents to convert light to heat has yet to be reported.  Here we synthesized dispersible polyethylene glycol-coated (PEGylated) copper nanowires (CuNWs) and showed for the first time that PEGylated CuNWs were able to convert near-infrared (NIR, 808 nm) light into heat at a photothermal efficiency of 12.5%.  This study demonstrated the potential of PEGylated CuNWs as a new cost-effective photothermal agent, and paved a new avenue to using CuNWs for cancer therapy.
THERM