Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
commercially and marketed under the trade name RadiantDOTS and
TorrentDOTS etc., by Biopal™.
3.2.2
Lanthanide-Doped Nanoparticles
They are another class of rare earth nanomaterials which has found a
lot of biological applications compared to lanthanide chelates and a lot
of research is being done currently to synthesize and biofunctionalize
these nanoparticles and use them for various applications. These
nanoparticles consist of a host crystal lattice doped with lanthanide
ions in low concentrations. The host material should have a crystal
lattice, which can fit the dopant ions so that the ions are held tightly
in the crystal. The host material is usually inorganic in nature with
low phonon energy and should provide an environment to sensitize
the fluorescence of the dopant ions. Inorganic oxides, oxysulfides,
bromides, chlorides, and fluorides have been investigated as host
material and doped with various lanthanide ions, synthesized in
various sizes and shapes. A perspective by Shen
. explains in
detail the different types of rare earth nanoparticles synthesized so
far for biological applications [4]. The schematic in Fig. 3.3 shows the
model of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles with trivalent lanthanide
ions doped in the host crystal lattice.
et al
Figure 3.3
Schematic showing the model of lanthanide-doped
nanoparticles. Adapted from [5], reprinted with permission
from the Royal Society of Chemistry, Copyright © 2009.
