Mackenzie, LE orcid.org/0000-0002-8151-0525, Goode, JA orcid.org/0000-0002-3642-1291, Vakurov, A et al. (4 more authors) (2018) The theoretical molecular weight of NaYF ₄ :RE upconversion nanoparticles. Scientific Reports, 8. 1106. ISSN 2045-2322
Abstract
Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) are utilized extensively for biomedical imaging, sensing, and therapeutic applications, yet the molecular weight of UCNPs has not previously been reported. Herein, we present a theory based upon the crystal structure of UCNPs to estimate the molecular weight of UCNPs: enabling insight into UCNP molecular weight for the first time. We estimate the theoretical molecular weight of various UCNPs reported in the literature, predicting that spherical NaYF4 UCNPs ~ 10 nm in diameter will be ~1 MDa (i.e. 106 g/mol), whereas UCNPs ~ 45 nm in diameter will be ~100 MDa (i.e. 108 g/mol). We also predict that hexagonal crystal phase UCNPs will be of greater molecular weight than cubic crystal phase UCNPs. Additionally we find that a Gaussian UCNP diameter distribution will correspond to a lognormal UCNP molecular weight distribution. Our approach could potentially be generalised to predict the molecular weight of other arbitrary crystalline nanoparticles: as such, we provide stand-alone graphic user interfaces to calculate the molecular weight both UCNPs and arbitrary crystalline nanoparticles. We expect knowledge of UCNP molecular weight to be of wide utility in biomedical applications where reporting UCNP quantity in absolute numbers or molarity will be beneficial for inter-study comparison and repeatability.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2018. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biomedical Sciences (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemistry (Leeds) > Organic Chemistry (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Medicine (Leeds) > Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine (LICAMM) > Discovery & Translational Science Dept (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EU - European Union GA 707297 BBSRC BB/N021398/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 22 Jan 2018 12:18 |
Last Modified: | 13 Mar 2019 08:45 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41598-018-19415-w |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:126449 |