Seedless synthesis of anisotropic gold nanoflowers with cellular control and drug delivery applications

A method of synthesizing anisotropic gold nanoparticles, the method comprising:

• providing aurate ions, a ligand comprising thioctic acid, ascorbic acid, and hydroxide and allowing them to react in an aqueous phase,
• thereby obtaining anisotropic gold nanoparticles having diameters in a range of 15-500 nm,
• wherein the ligand is selected from the group consisting of thioctic acid-NH2 (TA-NH2), TA-nitrilotriacetic acid (TA-NTA), TA-polyethylene glycol-COOH (TA-PEG-COOH), and TA-polyethylene glycol-NH2 (TA-PEG-NH2).