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Organisationseinheit der BAM
Core-shell (CS) particles have been increasingly used for a wide range of applications due to their unique properties by merging individual characteristics of the core and the shell materials. The functionality of the designed particles is strongly influenced by their surface roughness. Quantitative evaluation of the roughness of CS microparticles is, however, a challenging task for Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).
The SEM images contain two-dimensional (2D) information providing contour roughness data only from the projection of the particle in the horizontal plane. This study presents a practical procedure to achieve more information by tilting the sample holder, hence allowing images of different areas of a single particle to be recorded at different orientations under the same view angle. From the analysis of these images, quasi three-dimensional (3D) information is obtained.
Three types of home-made particles were investigated: i) bare polystyrene (PS) particles, ii) PS particles decorated with a first magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticle shell forming CS microbeads, iii) PS/Fe3O4 particles closed with a second silica (SiO2) shell forming core-shell-shell (CSS) microbeads. A series images of a single particle were taken with stepwise tilted sample holder up to 10° by an SEM with high-resolution and surface sensitive SE-InLens® mode.
A reliable analysis tool has been developed by a script in Python to analyze SEM images automatically and to evaluate profile roughness quantitatively, for individual core-shell microparticles. Image analysis consists of segmentation of the images, identifying contour and the centre of the particle, and extracting the root mean squared roughness value (RMS-RQ) of the contour profile from the particle projection within a few seconds.
The variation in roughness from batch-to-batch was determined with the purpose to set the method as a routine quality check procedure. Flow cytometry measurements provided complementary data. Measurement uncertainties associated to various particle orientations were also estimated.
The simultaneous detection of different analytes has gained increasing importance in recent years, especially in the fields of medical diagnostics and environmental analysis. Multiplex assays allow for a range of biomarkers or pollutants to be rapidly and simultaneously measured. Particularly suitable formats for multiplexing are bead-based assays. The beads employed need to fulfil size and density requirements, important for instance for flow cytometry, and shall exhibit a high modularity to be facilely adapted to various kinds of analytes and detection systems. Core/shell particles are ideally suited in this sense because of their modularity in design and adaptability for various (bio)analytical assays. Here, polystyrene particles coated with different kinds of shells are presented, possessing features that are useful for a multitude of assay formats.
The particles in focus were coated with mesoporous and non-porous silica shells, with the possibility to introduce magnetic features to facilitate easier handling dependent on the assay format (e.g., in microfluidics). With high throughput analyses in mind, cytometric model assays were developed. Different factors such as pH or mediator salt used during shell preparation were evaluated with shell inspection by electron microscopy (SEM/TEM/EDX) being key to architectural control of the monodisperse particles. The optimized core/shell particles can be functionalized with capture biomolecules for toxins, viruses, or drugs to demonstrate particle performance. Showing how tailoring of the shell’s surface area controls sensitivity and dynamic range of the assay, an antibody-based assay for the detection of mycotoxins and a multiplex assay for the determination of DNA from different human papilloma virus (HPV) lines were developed.
The simultaneous detection of different analytes has gained increasing importance in recent years, especially in the fields of environmental and health monitoring. Particularly suitable formats for multiplexing are bead-based assays. The beads employed need to fulfil size and density requirements important for instance for flow cytometry and shall exhibit an as high as possible surface area for anchoring capture probes to allow for low limits of detection. Core/shell particles are ideally suited in this sense because of their modularity in design and adaptability for various (bio)analytical assays. Here, polystyrene particles coated with different kinds of mesoporous silica shells are presented, possessing distinctly higher surface areas in comparison to non-porous core/shell particles. Different factors such as pH and amount and type of mediator salt used during shell preparation were evaluated with shell inspection by scanning/transmission scanning electron microscopy (SEM/tSEM) being key to architecture control of the monodisperse particles.
For a cytometric model assay, the optimized core/shell particles were functionalized with capture oligonucleotides for DNA detection. After covalent attachment of single-stranded DNA to the silane-modified silica surface, a hybridisation assay using labelled t-DNA complementary strands was carried out to demonstrate particle performance, showing how tailoring of the shell’s surface area controls sensitivity and dynamic range of the assay. Finally, a multiplex assay for the determination of DNA from different human papilloma virus (HPV) lines was developed. Using our optimized particles, we were able to detect down to 10 amolμl‒1, which is an improvement of one order of magnitude compared to assays using non-porous particles reported in the literature. In addition, multiplexed detection could successfully be demonstrated.