Bismuth Selenide Nanostructured Clusters as Optical Coherence Tomography Contrast Agents: Beyond Gold-Based Particles

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging technique currently used in clinical practice to obtain optical biopsies of different biological tissues in a minimally invasive way. Among the contrast agents proposed to increase the efficacy of this imaging method, gold nanoshells (GNSs) are the best performing ones. However, their preparation is generally time-consuming, and they are intrinsically costly to produce. Herein, we propose a more affordable alternative to these contrast agents: Bi 2 Se 3 nanostructured clusters with a desert rose-like morphology prepared via a microwave-assisted method. The structures are prepared in a matter of minutes, feature strong near-infrared extinction ...