无机纳米笼（Inorganic Nanocages）通常指空心的带孔洞的金纳米颗粒，大小为10到150纳米。金纳米笼可由氯金酸（HAuCl₄）在沸水中取代银纳米颗粒合成。通常金纳米颗粒的吸收峰在可见光波段（约550nm），而金纳米笼的吸收峰则位于近红外波段。近红外光的生物组织穿透性较好，且金纳米笼也有较好的生物兼容性，使其能作为光学相干断层扫描的显影剂，分辨率可达微米级。金纳米笼也可以通过吸收近红外光来加热，纳米笼的最初发现者华盛顿大学的夏幼南等将肿瘤特异性的抗体（如抗EGFR的抗体）加在金纳米笼上，使其可特异性富集在癌细胞表面，再远程施加近红外光来加热杀死癌细胞。

Inorganic Nanocages are hollow, porous gold nanoparticles ranging in size from 10 to over 150 nm. They are created by reacting silver nanoparticles with chloroauric acid (HAuCl₄) in boiling water. While gold nanoparticles absorb light in the visible spectrum of light (at about 550 nm), gold nanocages absorb light in the near-infrared, where biological tissues absorb the least light. Because they are also biocompatible, gold nanocages are promising as a contrast agent for optical coherence tomography, which uses light scattering in a way analogous to ultrasound to produce in-vivo images of tissue with resolution approaching a few micrometres. A contrast agent is required if this technique will be able to image cancers at an early, more treatable stage. Gold nanocages also absorb light and heat up, killing surrounding cancer cells. The Xia group at Washington University, the original inventors of the nanocages, has functionalized nanocages with cancer-specific antibodies so they specifically attach to cancer cells.