Folic Acid-Conjugated Silica-Modified TbPO4·H2O Nanorods for Biomedical Applications

Le Thi Vinh,Ha Thi Phuong,Le Quoc Minh,Do Thi Thao,Nguyen Manh Hung,Tran Thu Huong,Hoang Thi Khuyen,Scott L Wallen

doi:10.1155/2021/9888856

Abstract

We report on the synthesis and characterization of folic acid-conjugated silica-modified TbPO4·H2O nanorods for biomedical applications. The uniform shape TbPO4·H2O nanorods with a hexagonal phase were successfully synthesized by wet chemical methods. A novel TbPO4·H2O@silica-NH2 nanocomplex was then formed by functionalizing these nanorods with silica and conjugating with biological agents. The field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray, and X-ray diffraction reveal the morphology and structure of the nanorods, with their controllable sizes (500-800 nm in length and 50-80 nm in diameter). The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was employed to identify chemical substances or functional groups of the TbPO4·H2O@silica-NH2 nanocomplex. The photoluminescence spectra show the four emission lines of TbPO4·H2O@silica-NH2 in folic acid at 488, 540, 585, and 621 nm under 355 nm laser excitation, which could be attributed to the 5D4-7 F j ( J = 6 , 5 , 4 , 3 ) transitions of Tb3+. The TbPO4·H2O@silica-NH2 nanorods were conjugated with folic acid for the detection of MCF7 breast cancer cells. The obtained results show a promising possibility for the recognition of living cells that is of crucial importance in biolabeling.

Highlights

Rare earth containing luminescent nanophosphors with many advantages such as high stability, strong luminescence, noncomplex fabrication, easy surface functionalization, and friendly to environment and human body have been very promising materials for healthcare application, especially for biomedical fluorescence labeling [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
Nanorods are very interest for scientific community because the morphology is related with an intrinsic multifunction arising in different contact areas [18]
Some rare earth containing luminescent nanorods could be synthesized by wet chemical routes [19,20,21] including our successful work with TbPO4 nanorods [22]

Summary

Introduction

Rare earth containing luminescent nanophosphors with many advantages such as high stability, strong luminescence, noncomplex fabrication, easy surface functionalization, and friendly to environment and human body have been very promising materials for healthcare application, especially for biomedical fluorescence labeling [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Nanorods are very interest for scientific community because the morphology is related with an intrinsic multifunction arising in different contact areas [18]. These characteristics are very useful potential objects for application in highly functional devices. Some rare earth containing luminescent nanorods could be synthesized by wet chemical routes [19,20,21] including our successful work with TbPO4 nanorods [22] These results and some other previous studies have shown that the morphology of materials can have

Methods

Results

Conclusion