With the wide utilization of antibiotics, antibiotic‐resistant bacteria have been often developed more frequently to cause potential global catastrophic consequences. Emerging photothermal ablation has been attracting extensive research interest for quick/effective eradication of pathogenic bacteria from contaminated surroundings and infected body. In this field, anisotropic gold nanostructures with tunable size/morphologies have been demonstrated to exhibit their outstanding photothermal performance through strong plasmonic absorption of near‐infrared (NIR) light, efficient light to heat conversion, and easy surface modification for targeting bacteria. To this end, this review first introduces thermal treatment of infectious diseases followed by photothermal therapy via heat generation on NIR‐absorbing gold nanostructures. Then, the usual synthesis and spectral features of diversified gold nanostructures and composites are systematically overviewed with the emphasis on the importance of size, shape, and composition to achieve strong plasmonic absorption in NIR region. Further, the innovated photothermal applications of gold nanostructures are comprehensively demonstrated to combat against bacterial infections, and some constructive suggestions are also discussed to improve photothermal technologies for practical applications.

中文翻译：

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等离子体光调制金纳米结构的细菌的光热消融。

随着抗生素的广泛使用，对抗生素耐药的细菌常常被更频繁地开发，以引起潜在的全球灾难性后果。新兴的光热消融已经引起了广泛的研究兴趣，以从污染的环境和感染的身体中快速/有效地消除病原细菌。在这一领域，具有可调整大小/形态的各向异性金纳米结构已被证明通过对近红外（NIR）光的强等离子体吸收，有效的光热转换以及易于靶向细菌的表面修饰而表现出出色的光热性能。为此，本文首先介绍了传染病的热处理，然后通过吸收近红外的金纳米结构上的热量通过光热疗法进行治疗。然后，系统地概述了各种金纳米结构和复合材料的常规合成和光谱特征，重点是尺寸，形状和组成对实现近红外区域强等离子体吸收的重要性。此外，已全面证明了金纳米结构的创新光热应用可以对抗细菌感染，并且还讨论了一些建设性的建议，以提高光热技术的实用性。