A New Avenue to Promote Lanthanide Ion Emission

在这项由美国国家科学基金会化学部化学结构、动力学和机制B计划资助的项目中，内华达大学雷诺分校的Ana de Bettencourt-Dias教授和她的研究小组用稀土离子修饰了不同纳米粒子的表面，并评估了这些纳米粒子敏化稀土发光的能力。所开发的材料具有作为生物显像剂的潜在应用。该项目涉及对本科生和研究生以及博士后研究人员进行纳米粒子、有机分子和稀土离子络合物的合成以及现代发射和吸收光谱技术方面的培训。学生研究人员在撰写手稿描述他们的研究以供出版方面获得了经验。为了进一步提高学生撰写科学手稿的能力，德贝当古-迪亚斯教授已经开发并将继续改进一门关于科学写作的课程。主题包括提高写作效率的策略，研究手稿和毕业论文的大纲，在工业中使用已发表的来源和撰写简历的道德规范。由于4f轨道内的跃迁，稀土离子是发光的。这些转变和光发射最容易通过协调的生色团来促进。作为该项目的一部分，用现有的和新的配体对纳米颗粒表面进行功能化，以增加其在水中的溶解性和生物相容性；这些配体还与稀土离子配位，并充当能量转移的介体。借助荧光等光谱技术，将评估能量转移的效率，并开发参数，以改善发光性能，并为这些修饰纳米颗粒在生物成像应用中的未来应用提供参考。

In this project, funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms B Program of the Chemistry Division of the National Science Foundation, Professor Ana de Bettencourt-Dias and her research group at the University of Nevada, Reno, decorate the surfaces of diverse nanoparticles with lanthanide ions and assess the ability of these nanoparticles to sensitize lanthanide luminescence. The materials developed have potential application as bioimaging agents. The project involves training of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral researchers, in the synthesis of nanoparticles, organic molecules and lanthanide ion complexes, as well as modern emission and absorption spectroscopic techniques. Student researchers gain experience in writing manuscripts describing their research for publication. To further improve the students' ability to write scientific manuscripts, Prof. de Bettencourt-Dias has developed and will continue improving a course on scientific writing. Topics such as strategies to increase writing productivity, outlining of research manuscripts and graduate theses, the ethics of using published sources and resume writing for job searching in industry are included.Lanthanide ions are light emitters due to transitions within the 4f orbitals. These transitions and the light emission are most easily promoted through coordinated chromophores. As part of this project, the nanoparticle surfaces are functionalized with existing and with new ligands that serve to increase their aqueous solubility and biocompatibility; the ligands also coordinate the lanthanide ions and serve as mediators for the energy transfer. With the help of spectroscopic techniques such as fluorescence, the efficiency of the energy transfer will be assessed and parameters will be developed for improvement of the luminescence properties and for the future use of these decorated nanoparticles in bioimaging applications.