Luminescent rare earth vanadate nanoparticles doped with Eu3+ and Bi3 for sensing and imaging applications

Alberto Escudero; Carolina Carrillo-Carrión; Mikhail Zyuzin; Raimo Hartmann; Sumaira Ashraf; Wolfgang J. Parak

doi:10.1117/12.2214162

22 April 2016 Luminescent rare earth vanadate nanoparticles doped with Eu³⁺ and Bi³ for sensing and imaging applications

Alberto Escudero, Carolina Carrillo-Carrión, Mikhail Zyuzin, Raimo Hartmann, Sumaira Ashraf, Wolfgang J. Parak

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9722, Colloidal Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications XI; 972202 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2214162
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2016, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) are attracting interest in nanomedicine due to their potential medical applications, ranging from optical biolabels and contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging to carriers for drug and gene delivery for disease therapy.^[1] Rare earth (RE) based nanophosphors exhibit important advantages compared with other available luminescent materials, such as quantum dots and nanostructures functionalized with organic dyes, due to their lower toxicities, photostabilities, high thermal and chemical stabilities, high luminescence quantum yields, and sharp emission bands.^[2] Yttrium orthovanadate NPs doped with Eu³⁺ and Bi³⁺, functionalized with poly acryl acid (PAA), and excitable by near-ultraviolet light have been synthesized by homogeneous precipitation at 120 °C from solutions of rare earth precursors (yttrium acetylacetonate and europium nitrate), bismuth nitrate, sodium orthovanadate, and PAA, in an ethylene glycol/water mixture. Quasispheres with sizes from 93 to 51 nm were obtained. The as synthesized NPs were already functionalized with PAA. The NPs showed the typical red luminescence of Eu³⁺, which can be excited with near-UV light through an energy transfer from the vanadate anion. The presence of Bi³⁺ shifts the maximum of the broad excitation band from 280 nm to 342 nm. This excitation path is much more efficient than the direct excitation of the Eu³⁺ electronic levels, and results in a much higher luminescence. The NPs can be uptaken by HeLa cells, and are eventually located in the lysosomes after being internalized. Finally, the functionalization with PAA provides -COOH anchors for adding functional ligands of biomedical interest that can be used for sensing applications.

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Alberto Escudero, Carolina Carrillo-Carrión, Mikhail Zyuzin, Raimo Hartmann, Sumaira Ashraf, and Wolfgang J. Parak "Luminescent rare earth vanadate nanoparticles doped with Eu³⁺ and Bi³ for sensing and imaging applications", Proc. SPIE 9722, Colloidal Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications XI, 972202 (22 April 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2214162

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