Terbium-doped Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Bioimaging Purposes

In this study, we employed a low-cost and facile soaking method to prepare terbium-doped mesoporous silica nanoparticles (SiO
2
- Tb NPs) suitable for bioimaging purposes. Morphological analysis showed that prepared silica NPs possess spherical morphology with a mean diameter of ~ 82–1 07 nm. Photoluminescence analysis of SiO
2
- Tb NPs yielded several luminescent peaks associated with electronic
⁵
D
4
→ 7Fj (where j = 3, 4, 5, 6) transitions within terbium ions. The successful labeling of L-929 cells with SiO
2
- Tb NPs was tested using a fluorescence microscope. Obtained results suggested that SiO
2
- Tb NPs can be utilized as promising optically-stable nanoprobes for cells/tissues labeling and imaging.