We report the preparation of Langmuir- and Langmuir-Blodgett films of mesoporous silica coated gold nanorods. The silica coating on the gold nanorods was found to prevent the aggregation of the plasmonic particles trapped at the air/water interface. Due to the small aspect ratio of the gold core and the presence of the silica shell, the orientational alignment of the nanorods in the Langmuir-Blodgett film is hindered. After particle deposition, no plasmon coupling was observed, which enables the design of the resulting film's optical property at the particle level. By using mesoporous silica as the shell material, the accessibility of the metal core's surface is preserved. Organic dye (Rhodamine 6G) was found to be able to penetrate into the mesoporous shell of the gold nanorods, resulting in a red shift of the longitudinal plasmon mode. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.