Novel Terbium Chelate Doped Fluorescent Silica Nanoparticles

Novel terbium chelate doped silica fluorescent nanoparticles were prepared and characterized. The preparation was carried out in water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsion containing monomer precursor (pAB-DTPAA-APTEOS), Triton X-100, n-hexanol, and cyclohexane by controlling copolymerization of tetraethyl orthosilicate and 3-aminopropyl-triethyloxysilane. The nanoparticles are spherical and uniform in size, about 30 nm in diameter, strongly fluorescent, and highly stable. The amino groups directly introduced to the surface of the nanoparticles using APTEOS during preparation made the surface modification and bioconjugation of the nanoparticles easier. The nanoparticles are expected as an efficient time-resolved luminescence biological label.