Havva Yagci Acar

Development of highly luminescent and cytocompatible near-IR-emitting aqueous Ag2S quantum dots

Colloidally stable and highly luminescent near-IR emitting Ag2S quantum dots (NIRQDs) were prepared by a very simple aqueous method using 2-mercaptopropionic acid (2MPA) as a coating. Emission of Ag2S-2MPA NIRQDs can be tuned between 780 and 950 nm. These NIRQDs have photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQY) around 7–39% and exhibit excellent cytocompatibility even at 600 μg mL−1 in NIH/3T3 cells. With such improved properties, Ag2S-2MPA NIRQDs have a great potential in practical bio-applications.

RGDS-functionalized polyethylene glycol hydrogel-coated magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles enhance specific intracellular uptake by HeLa cells

The objective of this study was to develop thin, biocompatible, and biofunctional hydrogel-coated small-sized nanoparticles that exhibit favorable stability, viability, and specific cellular uptake. This article reports the coating of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIONPs) with covalently cross-linked biofunctional polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel. Silanized MIONPs were derivatized with eosin Y, and the covalently cross-linked biofunctional PEG hydrogel coating was achieved via surface-initiated photopolymerization of PEG diacrylate in aqueous solution. The thickness of the PEG hydrogel coating, between 23 and 126 nm, was tuned with laser exposure time. PEG hydrogel-coated MIONPs were further functionalized with the fibronectin-derived arginine-glycine-aspartic acid-serine (RGDS) sequence, in order to achieve a biofunctional PEG hydrogel layer around the nanoparticles. RGDS-bound PEG hydrogel-coated MIONPs showed a 17-fold higher uptake by the human cervical cancer HeLa cell line than that of amine-coated MIONPs. This novel method allows for the coating of MIONPs with nano-thin biofunctional hydrogel layers that may prevent undesirable cell and protein adhesion and may allow for cellular uptake in target tissues in a specific manner. These findings indicate that the further biofunctional PEG hydrogel coating of MIONPs is a promising platform for enhanced specific cell targeting in biomedical imaging and cancer therapy.

Impact of dilution on the transport of poly(acrylic acid) supported magnetite nanoparticles in porous media

This paper investigates the impact of dilution on the mobility of magnetite nanoparticles surface coated with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA). Transport experiments were conducted in a water-saturated sand-packed column for input nanoparticle solutions with total Fe concentrations ranging from 100 to 600mg/L. Particle size analysis of the synthesized nanoparticle solutions showed that PAA provides good size stability for Fe concentrations as low as about 1mg/L. Time-moment analysis of the nanoparticle breakthrough curves, on the other hand, revealed that nanoparticle mass recovery from the column decreased consistently with dilution, with greater attenuation, sharper fronts and longer tails compared to that of the tracer. Particle size analysis of the eluted solutions shows that the nanoparticle size is negatively correlated with nanoparticle concentration. Modeling results suggest that the decrease in nanoparticle mobility with input concentration can be represented using a kinetic time-dependent deposition term with finite deposition capacity and a kinetic detachment term. For field applications, the increase in particle size and detachment resulting from dilution means reduced transport efficiency of nanoparticles and reaction potential with travel distance.

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles as long wavelength photoinitiators for free radical polymerization

Iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) capped with lauric acid agents were synthesized and their photocatalytic activity was investigated in free radical photopolymerization of vinyl monomers. These NPs were able to release charge carriers (electron–hole pairs) upon photoexcitation through which the capping agents or an additional amine co-initiator acting as the hole acceptor underwent oxidation to eventually form the initiating radicals. In lauric acid coated Fe3O4 NPs, electron transfer followed by a decarboxylation process accounts for the initiation.

Cyto/hemocompatible magnetic hybrid nanoparticles (Ag2S–Fe3O4) with luminescence in the near-infrared region as promising theranostic materials

Small hybrid nanoparticles composed of highly biocompatible Ag2S quantum dots (QD) emitting in the near-infrared region and superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPION) are produced in a simple extraction method utilizing ligand exchange mechanism. Hybrid nanoparticles luminesce at the same wavelength as the parent QD, therefore an array of hybrid nanoparticles with emission between 840 and 912nm were easily produced. Such hybrid structures have (1) strong luminescence in the medical imaging window eliminating the autofluoresence of cells as effective optical probes, (2) strong magnetic response for magnetic targeting and (3) good cyto/hemocompatibility. An interesting size dependent cytotoxicity behavior was observed in HeLa and NIH/3T3 cell lines: smallest particles are internalized significantly more by both of the cell lines, yet showed almost no significant cytotoxicity in HeLa between 10 and 25μg/mL Ag concentration but were most toxic in NIH/3T3 cells. Cell internalization and hence the cytotoxicity enhanced when cells were incubated with the hybrid nanoparticles under magnetic field, especially with the hybrid nanoparticles containing larger amounts of SPION in the hybrid composition. These results prove them as effective optical imaging agents and magnetic delivery vehicles. Combined with the known advantages of SPIONs as a contrast agent in MRI, these particles are a step forward for new theranostics for multimode imaging and magnetic targeting.

Meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid: from heavy metal chelation to CdS quantum dots

DMSA (meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid) a prescription drug and a heavy-metal chelating agent, is shown to act both as a sulfur source and a capping agent in the aqueous synthesis of CdS quantum dots under mild conditions. Release of sulfur from DMSA depends on the solution pH and the reaction temperature. Combination of 70 °C and pH 7.5 was determined as the best reaction conditions for a well-controlled reaction. Changing the SH/Cd ratio from 2.5 to 7 provides QDs emitting from blue to orange with 6–9% quantum yield with respect to Rhodamine 2B. Viability tests performed with HeLa and MCF-7 cell lines indicate a very low cytotoxicity. Mild reaction conditions and biocompatibility makes these particles valuable candidates for bio applications.

Investigation of change in surface morphology of heated surfaces upon pool boiling of magnetic fluids under magnetic actuation

Nanofluids are becoming a significant candidate for new generation coolants to be used in industrial applications. In order to reduce clustering and sedimentation of nanoparticles and improve the heat transfer performance simultaneously, magnetic fluids prepared with magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles dispersed in water, which were placed in a pool and were exposed to varying magnetic fields to actuate nanoparticles in the system. The effect of magnetic actuation on boiling heat transfer characteristics and on the surface morphology of the pool was examined. An average enhancement of 29% in boiling heat transfer was achieved via magnetic actuation with rather low magnetic field (magnetic flux densities up to 11 mT) densities. Furthermore, it was observed that magnetic actuation significantly prevented the deposition and sedimentation of the nanoparticles in the pool. Otherwise, significant destabilization of nanoparticles causing aggregation and heavy sedimentation was present as a result of the performed surface analysis. Even though magnetic actuation reduced the sedimentation on the macroscale, the deposition of a thick and porous film occurred onto the pool floor, increasing the surface roughness.

Experimental Study on Convective Heat Transfer Performance of Iron Oxide Based Ferrofluids in Microtubes

Ferrofluids are colloidal suspensions, in which the solid phase material is composed of magnetic nanoparticles, while the base fluid can potentially be any fluid. The solid particles are held in suspension by weak intermolecular forces and may be made of materials with different magnetic properties. Magnetite is one of the materials used for its natural ferromagnetic properties. Heat transfer performance of ferrofluids should be carefully analyzed and considered for their potential of their use in wide range of applications. In this study, convective heat transfer experiments were conducted in order to characterize convective heat transfer enhancements with Lauric acid coated ironoxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticle based ferrofluids, which have volumetric fractions varying from 0% to ~5% and average particle diameter of 25 nm, in a hypodermic stainless steel microtube with an inner diameter of 514 Hm, an outer diameter of 819 Hm, and a heated length of 2.5 cm. Heat fluxes up to 184 W/cm2 were applied to the system at three different flow rates (1ml/s, 0.62ml/s and 0.36 ml/s). A decrease of around 100% in the maximum surface temperature (measured at the exit of the microtube) with the ferrofluid compared to the pure base fluid at significant heat fluxes (>100 W/cm2) was observed. Moreover, the enhancement in heat transfer increased with nanoparticle concentration, and there was no clue for saturation in heat transfer coefficient profiles with increasing volume fraction over the volume fraction range in this study (0%-5%). The promising results obtained from the experiments suggest that the use of ferrofluids for heat transfer, drug delivery, and biological applications can be advantageous and a viable alternative as new generation coolants and futuristic drug carriers.

Magnetic Nanoparticle Based Nanofluid Actuation With Dynamic Magnetic Fields

Magnetic nanoparticle suspensions and their manipulation are becoming an alternative research line and have very important applications in the field of microfluidics such as microscale flow control in microfluidic circuits, actuation of fluids in microscale, and drug delivery mechanisms. In microscale, it is possible and beneficial to use magnetic fields as actuators of such nanofluids, where these fluids could move along a gradient of magnetic field so that a micropump without any moving parts could be generated with this technique. Thus, magnetically actuated nanofluids could have the potential to be used as an alternative micro pumping system. Actuation of ferrofluid plugs with a changing magnetic field has been extensively studied in the literature. However; the flow properties of ferrofluids are sparsely investigated when the ferrofluid itself is forced to continuously flow inside a channel. As an extension of previous studies, this study aims to investigate flows of magnetic nanoparticle based nanofluids by a generated magnetic field and to compare the efficiency of the resulting system. Lauric Acid coated Super Paramagnetic Iron Oxide (SPIO-LA) was used as the ferrofluid sample in the experiments to realise actuation. Significant flow rates up to 61.8μL/s at nominal maximum magnetic field strengths of 300mT were achieved in the experiments. Results suggest that nanofluids with magnetic nanoparticles merit more research efforts in micro pumping. Thus, magnetic actuation could be a significant alternative for more common techniques such as electromechanical, electrokinetic, and piezoelectric actuation.Copyright

Bisphosphonate-functionalized poly(β-amino ester) network polymers

Three novel bisphosphonate-functionalized secondary diamines are synthesized and incorporated into poly(β-amino ester)s (PBAEs) to investigate the effects of bisphosphonates on biodegradation and toxicity of PBAE polymer networks. These three novel amines, BPA1, BPA2, and BPA3, were prepared from the reactions of 1,4-butanediamine, 1,6-hexanediamine, or 4,9-dioxa-1,12-dodecanediamine with tetraethyl vinylidene bisphosphonate, respectively. The PBAE macromers were obtained from the aza-Michael addition reaction of these amines to 1,6-hexane diol diacrylate (HDDA) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA, Mn  = 575) and photopolymerized to produce biodegradable gels. These gels with different chemistries exhibited similar degradation behavior with mass loss of 53-73% within 24 h, indicating that degradation is mostly governed by the bisphosphonate group. Based on the in vitro cytotoxicity evaluation against NIH 3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblast cells, the degradation products do not exhibit significant toxicity in most cases. It was also shown that PBAE macromers can be used as cross-linkers for the synthesis of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate hydrogels, conferring small and customizable degradation rates upon them. The materials reported have potential to be used as nontoxic degradable biomaterials.