Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories has developed a way of engineering multi-purpose nanomaterials, for imaging and even therapeutics, made of metal-organic framework materials (MOFs). MOFs are composite molecules made of metal nodes and carbon rods that link them. They have interesting characteristics, such as long-term multi-color fluorescence, can be formed into different shapes with huge surface areas, a they can work as catalysts, depending on their shapes and metals used.
Sandia’s particles are made of lanthanides, which are rare earth metals, including europium, which fluoresces red, and neodymium and ytterbium that fluoresce in the near infrared. Clusters of metals are more stable in water, and the researchers gave the particles complex shapes with large pores that can hold drugs.
The nanoparticles glow brighter than most particles currently available and are stable for at least two days, even when they’re mixed with living mammalian cells. Some of their other characteristics still need to be fine tuned to achieve optimal results.
Study in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces: Multifunctional, Tunable Metal–Organic Framework Materials Platform for Bioimaging Applications…
Via: Sandia…