Defying symmetry: a ‘flowery’ architecture with augmented surface area from gold coated polymeric ‘nanoblooms’

We demonstrate the synthesis and characterization of gold coated polymeric ‘nanoblooms’ that lead to an unusual flowery contour architecture with a high surface area. The unique architecture and properties of these nanoparticles achieved high gold loading, which can be exploited for many different biomedical applications. A preliminary computed tomographic imaging study shows multi-fold improvement in radio-opacity as compared to the non-clustered gold nanoparticles prepared.