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The theoretical molecular weight of NaYF4:RE upconversion nanoparticles

Mackenzie, Lewis E.; Goode, Jack A.; Vakurov, Alexandre; Nampi, Padmaja P.; Saha, Sikha; Jose, Gin; Millner, Paul A.

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Authors

Lewis E. Mackenzie

Jack A. Goode

Alexandre Vakurov

Padmaja P. Nampi

Sikha Saha

Gin Jose

Paul A. Millner



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.

Citation

Mackenzie, L. E., Goode, J. A., Vakurov, A., Nampi, P. P., Saha, S., Jose, G., & Millner, P. A. (2018). The theoretical molecular weight of NaYF4:RE upconversion nanoparticles. Scientific Reports, 8(1), Article 1106. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-19415-w

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 21, 2017
Online Publication Date Jan 18, 2018
Publication Date Jan 18, 2018
Deposit Date Jan 18, 2018
Publicly Available Date Jan 18, 2018
Journal Scientific Reports
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 8
Issue 1
Article Number 1106
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-19415-w

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
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/.




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