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Fluorescent nanoparticles used in biomedical applications should be stable in their colloidal form in aqueous media and possess a high quantum yield (QY). We report ultrasmall LnO (Ln = Eu, Tb, or Dy) nanoparticle colloids with high QYs in aqueous media. The nanoparticles are grafted with hydrophilic and biocompatible poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) to ensure colloidal stability and biocompatibility and with organic photosensitizer 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid (PDA) for achieving a high QY. The PAA/PDA-LnO nanoparticle colloids were nearly monodispersed and ultrasmall (particle diameter: ∼2 nm). They exhibited excellent colloidal stability with no precipitation after synthesis (>1.5 years) in aqueous media, very low cellular toxicity, and very high absolute QYs of 87.6, 73.6, and 2.8% for Ln = Eu, Tb, and Dy, respectively. These QYs are the highest reported so far for lanthanides in aqueous media. Therefore, the results suggest their high potential as sensitive optical or imaging probes in biomedical applications.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c02229 | DOI Listing |
Environ Sci Process Impacts
September 2025
Aix Marseille Univ., CNRS, LCE, Marseille, France.
Surfactant-rich aqueous media are common in natural environments. The sea surface microlayer and sea spray droplets are good examples and are also frequently markedly enriched in organic pollutants. This study focuses on the degradation kinetics of organic pollutants initiated by the hydroxyl radical in such surfactant-rich environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngew Chem Int Ed Engl
September 2025
College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, P.R. China.
Developing artificial hosts with temperature-driven conformational switching behaviors facilitates our understanding of the temperature-dependent allostery and adaptation mechanisms in natural recognition systems. Herein, we report the design and synthesis of three pairs of water-soluble, enantiomeric binaphthalene-based tetraimidazolium macrocycles (SS/RR-1•4Cl- - SS/RR-3•4Cl-) as artificial hosts for exploring sequence-selective recognition of dinucleotides in aqueous media. Owing to the reversible rotational conformation of axially chiral binaphthyl units, SS-1•4Cl- demonstrates the conformational switching, converting from cis-conformation (SS-1) to trans-conformation (SS-1) by increasing temperature, thereby causing the recognition cavity to transition from a closed to an open state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnal Sens
January 2025
Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75390 United States.
At present, two competing hyperpolarization (HP) techniques, dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) and parahydrogen (para-H) induced polarization (PHIP), can generate sufficiently high liquid state C signal enhancement for in vivo studies. PHIP utilizes the singlet spin state of para-H to create non-equilibrium spin populations. In hydrogenative PHIP, para-H is irreversibly added to unsaturated precursors, typically in the presence of a homogeneous catalyst.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInorg Chem
September 2025
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, United States.
The solvation structure of an Np ion in an aqueous, noncomplexing and nonoxidizing environment of trifluoromethanesulfonic (triflic) acid was investigated with X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) combined with ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations. Np L-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) data were collected for Np in 1, 3, and 7 M triflic acid using a laboratory-scale spectrometer and separately at a synchrotron facility, producing data sets in excellent agreement. TDDFT calculations revealed a weak pre-edge feature not previously reported for Np L-edge XANES.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNatl Sci Rev
September 2025
Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, Xi'an 710127, China.
Precision in controlling the microenvironment of nanospaces is a potent strategy for exploring architecture‒function relationships. Herein, a face-capped tetrahedral cage, featuring Pd‒Pd-bonded vertices, with a tailored nanospace surrounded by 12 ethyl units, was facilitated to adaptively accommodate a library of guests with different sizes and shapes, including C6 cyclic hydrocarbons, adamantane derivatives, S and P. This nanocavity can achieve strong binding with cyclohexane in non-aqueous media in contrast to reported structurally similar non--functionalized cages by an increase of four orders of magnitude.
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