TY - JOUR A1 - Felbeck, T. A1 - Lezhnina, M.M. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Kynast, U.H. T1 - Red emissive nanoclay hybrids in transparent aqueous dispersion-towards optical applications in biophotonics JF - Journal of luminescence N2 - Hydrophobic guest molecules like organic dyes and metal–ion complexes can be introduced into aqueous media via adsorption onto inorganic nanoclay host materials such as nm-sized laponite. Dispersions of these organic–inorganic hybrid materials show several advantageous properties like minimum light scattering due to their small size in the nanometer regime, ease of modification, low cost, low toxicity, and long-term stability, making them perfect candidates as signaling units and optically active materials in photonics and biotechnology. In this study, we summarize first findings on the easy-to-make, but chemically and optically fairly complex behavior of nanoclay hybrids for biotechnological applications. The latter includes the preparation of nanomaterials, which are colloidally stable in buffers and in the presence of biomolecules like proteins, and methods to control their surface chemistry. For this purpose, we used two red emitting fluorophores, the small organic dye Nile Red and the rare earth complex Eu(ttfa)3(topo)2, and evaluated the interaction of the red nanoclay hybrids with two model proteins, bovine serum albumin and β-lactoglobulin. We were able to monitor the formation of the protein corona around these hybrids using absorption and luminescence spectroscopy. KW - Nile Red KW - Europium complex KW - Protein corona KW - Nanoclay hybrids KW - Polarity probe PY - 2016 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlumin.2014.11.039 SN - 0022-2313 SN - 1872-7883 VL - 169 SP - 728 EP - 732 PB - North-Holland Publ. Co. CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-33817 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Felbeck, Tom A1 - Behnke, Thomas A1 - Hoffmann, Katrin A1 - Grabolle, Markus A1 - Lezhnina, M.M. A1 - Kynast, U.H. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute T1 - Nile-red-nanoclay hybrids: Red emissive optical probes for use in aqueous dispersion JF - Langmuir N2 - Water-dispersible and (bio)functionalizable nanoclays have a considerable potential as inexpensive carriers for organic molecules like drugs and fluorophores. Aiming at simple design strategies for red-emissive optical probes for the life sciences from commercial precursors with minimum synthetic effort, we systematically studied the dye loading behavior and stability of differently functionalized laponites. Here, we present a comprehensive study of the absorption and emission properties of the red emissive hydrophobic and neutral dye Nile Red, a well-known polarity probe, which is almost insoluble and nonemissive in water. Adsorption of this probe onto disk-shaped nanoclays was studied in aqueous dispersion as function of dye concentration, in the absence and presence of the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) assisting dye loading, and as a function of pH. This laponite loading strategy yields strongly fluorescent nanoclay suspensions with a fluorescence quantum yield of 0.34 at low dye loading concentration. The dye concentration-, CTAB-, and pH-dependent absorption, fluorescence emission, and fluorescence excitation spectra of the Nile-Red6#8211;nanoclay suspensions suggest the formation of several Nile Red species including emissive Nile Red monomers facing a polar environment, nonemissive H-type dimers, and protonated Nile Red molecules that are also nonfluorescent. Formation of all nonemissive Nile Red species could be suppressed by modification of the laponite with CTAB. This underlines the great potential of properly modified and functionalized laponite nanodisks as platform for optical probes with drug delivery capacities, for example, for tumor and therapy imaging. Moreover, comparison of the Nile Red dimer absorption spectra with absorption spectra of previously studied Nile Red aggregates in dendrimer systems and micelles and other literature systems reveals a considerable dependence of the dimer absorption band on microenvironment polarity which has not yet been reported so far for H-type dye aggregates. KW - Nile Red KW - Dye KW - Laponite KW - Nanoclay KW - Photoluminescence KW - Fluorescence KW - Polarity probe KW - Aggregate KW - Dimer PY - 2013 UR - http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/la402165q DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/la402165q SN - 0743-7463 SN - 1520-5827 VL - 29 IS - 36 SP - 11489 EP - 11497 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-29017 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - López-Iglesias, C. A1 - Markovina, A. A1 - Nirmalananthan-Budau, N. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Klinger, D. T1 - Optically monitoring the microenvironment of a hydrophobic cargo in amphiphilic nanogels: influence of network composition on loading and release JF - Nanoscale N2 - Amphiphilic nanogels (ANGs) are promising carriers for hydrophobic cargos such as drugs, dyes, and catalysts. Loading content and release kinetics of these compounds are controlled by type and number of hydrophobic groups in the amphiphilic copolymer network. Thus, understanding the interactions between cargo and colloidal carrier is mandatory for a tailor-made and cargo-specific ANG design. To systematically explore the influence of the network composition on these interactions, we prepared a set of ANGs of different amphiphilicity and loaded these ANGs with varying concentrations of the solvatochromic dye Nile Red (NR). Here, NR acts as a hydrophobic model cargo to optically probe the polarity of its microenvironment. Analysis of the NR emission spectra as well as measurements of the fluorescence quantum yields and decay kinetics revealed a decrease in the polarity of the NR microenvironment with increasing hydrophobicity of the hydrophobic groups in the ANG network and dye–dye interactions at higher loading concentrations. At low NR concentrations, the hydrophobic cargo NR is encapsulated in the hydrophobic domains. Increasing NR concentrations resulted in probe molecules located in a more hydrophilic environment, i.e., at the nanodomain border, and favored dye–dye interactions and NR aggregation. These results correlate well with release experiments, indicating first NR release from more hydrophilic network locations. Overall, our findings demonstrate the importance to understand carrier–drug interactions for efficient loading and controlled release profiles in amphiphilic nanogels. KW - Particle KW - Energy transfer KW - Limit of detection KW - Polymer KW - Luminescence KW - Quantitative spectroscopy KW - Nano KW - Quantum yield KW - Lifetime KW - Quality assurance KW - Dye KW - Probe KW - Sensor KW - Nile Red PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-601603 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d4nr00051j SN - 2040-3364 IS - 16 SP - 9525 EP - 9535 PB - The Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-60160 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute ED - Scholz, Norman ED - Behnke, Thomas T1 - Determination of the critical micelle concentration of neutral and ionic surfactants with fluorometry, conductometry, and surface tension - a method comparison JF - Journal of Fluorescence N2 - Micelles are of increasing importance as versatile carriers for hydrophobic substances and nanoprobes for a wide range of pharmaceutical, diagnostic, medical, and therapeutic applications. A key Parameter indicating the Formation and stability of micelles is the critical micelle concentration (CMC). In this respect, we determined the CMC of common anionic, cationic, and non-ionic surfactants fluorometrically using different fluorescent probes and fluorescence Parameters for Signal detection and ompared the results with conductometric and surface Tension measurements. Based upon These results, requirements, Advantages, and pitfalls of each methods are discussed. Our study underlines the versatility of fluorometric methods that do not impose specific requirements on surfactants and are especially suited for the quantification of very low CMC values. Conductivity and surface Tension measurements yield smaller uncertainties particularly for high CMC values, yet are more time- and substance consuming and not suitable for every surfactant. KW - Fluorescence KW - Methods KW - Critical micelle concentration (CMC) KW - Conductometry KW - Fluorescence probe KW - Dye KW - Nile Red KW - Pitfalls KW - Method evaluation KW - Uncertainty PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-018-2209-4 SN - 1053-0509 SN - 1573-4994 VL - 28 IS - 1 SP - 465 EP - 476 AN - OPUS4-43905 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -