Ambient Large-Scale Template-Mediated Synthesis of High-Aspect Ratio Single-Crystalline, Chemically Doped Rare-Earth Phosphate Nanowires for Bioimaging

Abstract

A simple and effective template-mediated protocol has been developed for the large-scale, room-temperature preparation of high-aspect-ratio, single-crystalline Tb-doped CePO(4) nanowires, measuring approximately 12 nm in diameter and over 10 mum in length. Moreover, we also isolated sheaf-like bundles of nanostructures. The synthesis mechanism likely involved a crystal splitting step. The resulting nanowires demonstrated an intense redox-sensitive green photoluminescence, which was exploited, in addition to their inherently high biocompatibility and low toxicity, for potential applications in biological imaging and labeling of cells.

Dispersible crystalline nanobundles of YPO4 and Ln (Eu, Tb)-doped YPO4: rapid synthesis, optical properties and bio-probe applications

“…Our findings further support the results published on other types of rare earth phosphate nanomaterials (Shen et al 2008;Zhang and Wong 2009).…”

“…The mechanism by which the HeLa cells uptake nanomaterials is not clearly understood yet. However, a few reports suggest that uptake occurs via a receptor-mediated endocytosis, which arises from the cellular recognition of some serum proteins from biological (culturing) media such as bovine serum albumin (BSA), which can non-specifically coat the surfaces of nanomaterials, thereby enabling them to permeate cells (Di et al 2011;Zhang and Wong 2009).…”

“…-doped TbPO 4 nanoparticles in 24 h at 150°C using a hydrothermal route (Di et al 2011). Wong's group used a template-mediated protocol to synthesise CePO 4 :Tb nanowires and demonstrated their potential applications in biological imaging and cell labelling (Zhang and Wong 2009). Liu's group synthesised YPO 4 :Eu 3?…”

Shape evolution of antimony oxychloride from sheaf-like to quasi-wafer structures

“…As previously reported for other sheaf-like crystals, including Bi 2 S 3 [16][17][18], -FeO(OH) [19], BaWO 4 [20,21], lanthanum orthovanadates [22], Sb 2 S 3 and Sb 2 Se 3 [23,24], CuO [25,26], CeO 2 [27] and Tb-doped CePO 4 [28], it has been widely accepted that the formation mechanism of sheaf-like morphologies is because of crystal splitting. Crystal splitting possibly occurs because of solution oversaturation conditions are used, or the presence of additives which may influence the crystal growth process leading to crystal splitting.…”

Controlled synthesis of EuPO4 nano/microstructures and core–shell SiO2@EuPO4 nanostructures with improved photoluminescence

“…19,20 In addition, rare earth phosphate nanomaterials have potential applications in the LCD displays, plasma display panels (PDPS), eld emission displays, new generation uo-rescent lamps, and so on. [21][22][23][24] Many preparation methods have been used to fabricate nanostructured rare earth phosphates such as nanowires, nanotubes, nanoplates, and nanorods to improve the luminescence emission intensity.…”