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This is a suspension of nanoparticles in a quarz-glass cell exposed to ultra violet light.
[Image by Dr Klaus von Haeften, University of Leicester]
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The nanoparticles contain just a few hundred silicon atoms and their fluorescence were discovered after mixing them with water. This resulted in stability in fluorescence intensity over more than a three month period. An interdisciplinary research project with the Department of Chemistry, led by Professor Chris Binns and Dr Glenn Burley, also incorporates this new method of synthesis. They are aiming to link nanoparticles to drugs involved in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Professor of Nanoscience in the Department of Physics and Astonomy, Chris Binns said: "Nanotechnology, that is, the use of structures whose dimensions are on the nanometre scale, to build new materials and devices, appears to hold the key to future developments in a wide range of technologies, including materials, science, information technology and healthcare." Dr von Haeften added: "The approach developed in Leicester could be a key step towards the production of a variety of biomedical sensors that could help track the uptake of drugs by cells." The benign nature of silicon also makes the nanoparticles useful as fluorescent markers for tagging biologically sensitive materials. The light from a single nanoparticle can be readily detected. The results of this work were published in Applied Physics Letters journal by researchers Anthony Brewer and Klaus von Haeften.
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