We have developed a novel carbon nanotube-based contrast agent for both thermoacoustic and photoacoustic tomography. In comparison to deionized water, single-walled carbon nanotubes exhibited more than twofold signal enhancement for thermoacoustic tomography at . In comparison to blood, they exhibited more than sixfold signal enhancement for photoacoustic tomography at wavelength. The large contrast enhancement of single-walled carbon nanotubes was further corroborated by tissue phantom imaging studies.
