Patent 7226636 was granted and assigned to Los Alamos National Security on June, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A process of preparing gold-coated magnetic nanoparticles is disclosed and includes forming a suspension of magnetic nanoparticles within a suitable liquid, adding an amount of a reducible gold compound and a reducing agent to the suspension, and, maintaining the suspension for time sufficient to form gold-coated magnetic nanoparticles.