Magnetic, Luminescent Nanoparticles Set New Standard

The particles, about 100 to 200 nanometers in size, are luminescent, magnetic and inexpensive to make, and can be tagged with antibodies. They are made up of a magnetic core of iron oxide or iron/neodymium/cobalt oxide coated in a shell of europium and gadolinium oxide. When stimulated with a laser, europium emits red light at a very specific wavelength.

The nanoparticles can be manipulated with magnets and detected by fluorescence. They could also be labeled with other fluorescent labels in different colors, or used as part of an assay with other fluorescent labels. The built-in europium luminescence acts as an internal standard, making it easier to carry out accurate quantitative assays, said Ian Kennedy, professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering and senior author on a paper describing the work.

The particles can also be coated with short pieces of DNA and used for genetic analysis. The team is exploring uses including testing for bioterrorism agents such as ricin or botulinum toxin in food and for genetic tests in cancer medicine.

The nanoparticles were made by spray pyrolysis, which involves mixing the raw material in a solvent and spraying it through a flame. The method is much cheaper than the techniques previously used for making similar particles, and can readily be scaled up to industrial production. It is already used in the chemical industry to make products such as fumed silica and carbon black.

Other authors on the paper are research specialist Dosi Dosev, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering; postdoctoral researcher Mikaela Nichkova, research associate Shirley Gee and Professor Bruce Hammock, all of the Department of Entomology; and physics graduate student Randy Dumas and Kai Liu, associate professor of physics.

The researchers are establishing a company, Synthia LLC, to develop the technology further.

The paper is published online in the journal Nanotechnology and will appear in the Feb. 7, 2007, print issue of the journal. The work was funded primarily by the National Science Foundation and the Superfund Basic Research Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Media Contact

Andy Fell EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.ucdavis.edu

All latest news from the category: Ecology, The Environment and Conservation

This complex theme deals primarily with interactions between organisms and the environmental factors that impact them, but to a greater extent between individual inanimate environmental factors.

innovations-report offers informative reports and articles on topics such as climate protection, landscape conservation, ecological systems, wildlife and nature parks and ecosystem efficiency and balance.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors