Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
- 2016 (2)
Dokumenttyp
- Vortrag (2)
Sprache
- Englisch (2)
Referierte Publikation
- nein (2)
Schlagworte
- PEG (2) (entfernen)
Eingeladener Vortrag
- nein (2)
The surface chemistry / functionalization of nanomaterials and microparticles largely controls the stability of these materials as well as their solubility and subsequent biofunctionalization and their interactions with biological systems. Moreover, in the case of some nanomaterials like semiconductor quantum dots or lanthanide-based upconversion nanocrystals, the ligand shell strongly affects their optical properties, e.g., via passivation of surface states and traps that favor luminescence quenching or the protection of surface atoms from quenching water molecules. This renders analytical methods for the quantification of surface groups like functionalities very important. Targets of broad interest are here amino, carboxyl, alkine and maleimide groups used for common bioconjugation reactions and typical ligands like thiols and polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules of varying length, used for the tuning of material hydrophilicity and biocompatibility, minimization of unspecific interactions, prevention of biofouling, and enhancement of blood circulation times as well as surface-bound biomolecules like streptavidin or other biomolecules relevant e.g., for diagnostic assays. Here, we focus on simple optical methods relying on standard laboratory instrumentation, validated by method comparison and/or mass balances and present examples for their use for the characterization of different types of nanomaterials and microparticles.
Luminescence-based detection methods, ranging from fluorescence spectroscopy for photophysical and mechanistic studies over sensing applications, chromatographic separation techniques and the microarray technology with fluorescence detection to fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, single molecule spectroscopy, and molecular imaging to integrating sphere spectroscopy, are among the most widely used methods in the life and material sciences. This is due to e.g., their unique sensitivity enabling the detection of single molecules, potential for multiplexing, ease of combination with spatial resolution, and suitability for remote sensing. Many of these advantages are closely linked to the choice of suitable molecular and nanoscale fluorescent reporters, typically required for signal generation. This includes organic dyes without and with sensor function, fluorophore-encoded polymeric and silica nanoparticles as well as nanocrystalline systems like semiconductor quantum dots and upconversion phosphors, emitting in the visible (vis), near-infrared (NIR), and IR (infrared). Current challenges present the environment sensitivity of most fluorophores, rendering fluorescence spectra, measured intensities/fluorescence quantum yields, and fluorescence decay kinetics matrix-dependent, and instrument-specific distortions of measured fluorescence signals that need to be considered for quantification and comparability of data, particularly fluorescence spectra.
Here, current applications of luminescence-based methods and different types of reporters will be presented. In this context, suitable spectroscopic tools for the characteri-zation of the optical properties of fluorescent reporters and fluorophore-encoded microparticles, analytical tools for the determination of the surface chemistry of different types of particles, and different multiplexing strategies will be discussed.