Synthesis of Urchin‐like Au@TiO2 Nano‐Carriers as a Drug‐Loading System Toward Cancer Treatment

In recent years, improving the pharmaceutical properties of drug delivery for anti‐cancer treatment has become increasingly important. This is necessary to address challenges related to absorption, distribution, and stability. One potential approach solution is to attach the drug to a carrier system, such as functional noble nanomaterials, in order to improve the control of drug release and stability. Core‐satellite nanoparticles (CSN) with an anisotropic morphology have enormous potential for targeted drug delivery and cancer treatment because of their large surface area, exceptional stability, and biocompatibility. We used a simple seed‐mediated approach to synthesize urchin‐like gold nanoparticles (ULGNPs) with a high aspect ratio and a dense network of 49 nm‐sized branches, using seed solution, silver nitrate, and ascorbic acid. The ULGNPs were synthesized without a surfactant and then encapsulated with thin layers of amorphous TiO2 (ULGNPs@TiO2), resulting in an average overall size of 136±15 nm with a 27.5 nm TiO2 layer. Doxorubicin (Dox) was chosen as a model drug to assess the distribution carrier ability of ULGNPs@TiO2 core‐satellite nanoparticles. The results showed 86.5% Dox loading and 72.3% release capacity at pH 5.