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Biofilms are ubiquitous in nature and in the man-made environment. Given their harmful effects on human health, an in-depth understanding of biofilms and the monitoring of their formation and growth are important. Particularly relevant for many metabolic processes and survival strategies of biofilms is their extracellular pH. However, most conventional techniques are not suited for minimally invasive pH measurements of living biofilms. Here, a fluorescent nanosensor is presented for ratiometric measurements of pH in biofilms in the range of pH 4.5–9.5 using confocal laser scanning microscopy. The nanosensor consists of biocompatible polystyrene nanoparticles loaded with pH-inert dye Nile Red and is surface functionalized with a pH-responsive fluorescein dye. Its performance was validated by fluorometrically monitoring the time-dependent changes in pH in E. coli biofilms after glucose inoculation at 37 °C and 4 °C. This revealed a temperature-dependent decrease in pH over a 4-h period caused by the acidifying glucose metabolism of E. coli. These studies demonstrate the applicability of this nanosensor to characterize the chemical microenvironment in biofilms with fluorescence methods.
Functionalized nanomaterials (NM) with their unique size-dependent properties are of increasing relevance for current and future developments in various fields such as medical and pharmaceutical industry, computing, electronics or food and consumer products. The performance and safety of NM are determined by the sum of their intrinsic physicochemical properties.1 Besides other key parameters, the particle surface chemistry, which is largely controlled by the chemical nature and density of functional groups and ligands, must be considered for a better performance, stability, and processibility of NM, as well as their interaction with the environment. Thus, particle standards with well-designed surfaces and methods for functional group quantification can foster the sustainable development of functional and safe(r) NM.2 Here we provide a brief overview of the ongoing research in division Biophotonics to design tailored amorphous silica reference particles with bioanalytically relevant functional groups and ligands, for the development of standardized and validated surface functional group quantification methods.
The overall interest in nanotoxicity, triggered by the increasing use of nanomaterials in the material and life sciences, and the synthesis of an ever increasing number of new functional nanoparticles calls not only for standardized test procedures1,2 and for efficient approaches to screen the potential genotoxicity of these materials, but also for standardized and validated methods for surface analysis.
4,5 The analysis and quantification of surface chemistry is hence in the focus of an increasing number of standardization organizations and interlaboratory comparisons with different analytical methods are being done.5 For the monitoring of nanomaterial synthesis and the fast assessment of the number of functional groups such as carboxyl and amino functionalities, which are very commonly used functionalities in the life sciences, simple and validated methods are needed that can be performed with common laboratory instrumentation. 5,6 Here we provide a brief overview of the ongoing research in division Biophotonics employing quantitative NMR (qNMR), conductometry, and colorimetric and fluorometric optical assays for the determination of the total and the accessible number of carboxyl and amino groups on differently sized polymer and silica nano- and microparticles.5-7
Luminescent nanocrystals like core/shell semiconductor quantum dots and lanthanide doped nanophosphors as well as gold nanoclusters with emission in the visible (vis) and particularly in the near infrared (NIR) and short wavelength infrared (SWIR) region have been increasingly used as reporters in the life sciences and for bioimaging studies in the last years. This has led to sophisticated core-shell particle architectures of different chemical composition utilizing semiconductor quantum dots and lanthanide-based nanocrystals and initiated the design of gold nanoclusters with different ligands. In addition, this led to an increasing number of quantitative spectroscopic studies focusing on the key performance parameter photoluminescence quantum yield to identify optimum particle structures. In the following, an overview of different classes of nanocrystalline emitters and their photophysics is provided and examples for the absolute characterization of the photoluminescence properties of these different vis/NIR/SWIR emitters are shown including excitation power density-dependent studies on the ensemble and single particle level. Also, the impact of such measurements on a profound mechanistic understanding of the underlying nonradiative deactivation pathways is highlighted as required for reporter design.
The rational synthesis and use of nanomaterials require the characterization of many different properties, ranging from particle size and size distribution over surface chemistry to more applicationrelevant features like optical, electrochemical, and magnetic properties. In the following, several methods for the characterization of functional groups on nanomaterials, like polymer and silica nanoparticles, semiconductor quantum dots, and lanthanide-based upconversion nanocrystals are presented. Additionally, procedures for the measurement of the key spectroscopic performance parameters of nanomaterials with linear and nonlinear photoluminescence, such as the photoluminescence quantum yield, are presented for the UV/vis/NIR/SWIR.
Two nanosensors for simultaneous optical measurements of the bioanalytically and biologically relevant analytes temperature (“T”), oxygen (“O”), and pH (“P”) have been designed. These “TOP” nanosensors are based on 100 nmsized silica-coated polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs) doped with a near-infrared emissive oxygen- and temperature-sensitive chromium(III) complex ([Cr(ddpd)2][BPh4]3, CrBPh4) and an inert reference dye (Nile Red, NR or 5,10,15,20tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl) porphyrin, TFPP) and are covalently labeled with pHsensitive fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC). These emitters can be excited at the same wavelength and reveal spectrally distinguishable emission bands, allowing for ratiometric intensity-based and time-resolved studies in the visible and near-infrared wavelength region. Studies in PBS buffer solutions and in a model body liquid demonstrate the applicability of these nanosensors for the sensitive luminescence readout of TOP simultaneously at the same spatialposition.