Journal of Materials Chemistry Blog

Commonly in my household the phrase “you make a better door than you do a window” is often fired at whichever thoughtless member is blocking the latest episode of whatever intelligence diluting programme is being watched at the time. However, this same, seemingly mundane problem, of human solidity is also being suffered by scientists developing new techniques for biomedical imaging.

Luminescent labels have been widely used for biological applications, primarily bioimaging and assays. They offer advantages over tomographic imaging techniques (e.g. CT, PET and MRI) including fast feedback and high selectivity and resolution. Unfortunately, adsorption and scattering of the photos emitted by these labels caused by biological tissue and water inside the body create problems such as weak signals and limited depth of detection.

Luckily, there are some wavelengths of light that are not adsorbed by the body and fall into what is known as the “biological transparency window”. There are two ranges: NIR I 650 – 900 nm and NIR II 1000 – 1450 nm. Since the discovery of these NIR regions research has increased with the focus of developing nanomaterials that can be excited or emitted within these wavelengths. The main content of this review written by Wang and Zhang is an overview of these novel nanomaterials, divided into four main species: lanthanide based nanomaterials, carbon based nanomaterials, quantum dots and noble metal nanoparticles. Covering their fabrication and application and also their shortcomings and what challenges and opportunities there are in the future.

NIR Luminescent Nanomaterials for Biomedical Imaging
Rui Wang and Fan Zhang
J. Mater Chem. B, 2014, 2, 2422-2443. C3TB21447H

H. L. Parker is a guest web writer for the Journal of Materials Chemistry blog. She currently works at the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, the University of York.

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Luminescent materials are a part of our everyday life featuring in lighting, television screens, etc. The recent emergence of lanthanide-based metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) has illuminated the future development of new functional luminescent materials. Research into Ln-MOFs is still at its early stages but they have shown promise in the development of effective novel compounds.

This paper by Zhang et al. takes Ln-MOFs to the next level and presents the first example of mixed-lanthanide MOFs. The work combines Eu³⁺, Gd³⁺ and Tb³⁺ as co-doped ions on to one MOF framework. The co-doped Ln-MOF is capable of excitation-dependent mutual conversion between blue, white and yellow emission chromaticity…I am guessing this is where the rather whimsical title has come from.

This succinctly written communication gives a first look at the synthesis and testing of this exciting new Ln-MOF and gives an idea of where the research into Ln-MOFs might be heading in the future.

A highly luminescent chameleon: fine tuned emission trajectory and controllable energy transfer
Huabin Zhang, Xiaochen Shan, Zuju Ma, Liujiang Zhou. Mingjian Zhang, Ping Lin, Shengmin Hu, En Ma, Renfu Li and Shaowu Du
 J. Mater Chem. C, 2014, 2, 1367-1371. C3TC31624F

H. L. Parker is a guest web writer for the Journal of Materials Chemistry blog. She currently works at the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, the University of York.

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The use of engineered nanostructures in biomedical applications and optimized therapy is revolutionising medicine and the way we treat disease. It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that cancer is one of the biggest driving forces responsible for development of therapeutic nanotechnologies. The potential for earlier detection and targeted treatment of tumours using nanotechnologies will act not only to reduce the number of cancer deaths but also reduce the side effects and increase the efficacy of treatments.

This review by Zhang et al. examines the recent advances in nanotechnology for targeted drug delivery and controlled drug release in cancer treatment. The focus of the introduction is on inorganic nanostructures, highlighting the advantages of these materials over bioorganic nanomaterials, namely the ease of synthesis, modification and the control of size, shape and surface functionalization can be carried out. All of which allow for the design of materials for specific tissue or cell type targeting, controlled drug delivery and in vivo diagnostic imaging.

The review also covers the mechanisms of systematic targeted drug delivery, stimuli-responsive drug release and biocompatibility of these inorganic nanostructures. Overall, this review gives a clear and varied look at the different technologies under development that I would recommend to many scientists, not just those working in this field.

Chemical modification of inorganic nanostructures for targeted and controlled drug delivery in cancer treatment
Lei Zhang, Yecheng Li and Jimmy C. Yu
 J. Mater Chem. B, 2014, 2, 452-470. C3TB21196G

H. L. Parker is a guest web writer for the Journal of Materials Chemistry blog. She currently works at the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, the University of York.

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Strong transparent magnetic nanopaper prepared by immobilization of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in a nanofibrillated cellulose network
Yuanyuan Li, Hongli Zhu, Hongbo Gu, Honggi Dai, Zhiqiang Fang, Nicholas J. Weadock, Zhanhu Guo and Liangbing Hu

Bidirectional actuation of a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer
Martin Bothe and Thorsten Pretsch

Injectable biodegradable hydrogels: progress and challenges
Ki Hyun Bae, Li-Shan Wang and Motoichi Kurisawa

These papers are free to access until 8th May 2014 

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