Newly emerging nanomaterials promise a major advancement of methods of nuclear and radiative medicine for cancer treatment, as they can be used as carriers of diagnostic or therapeutic radionuclides, contrast agents in nuclear imaging modalities (PET, SPECT) or sensitizers of radiative therapies (X-ray, ion beams, etc.). However, nanotechnology-based approaches have reported a limited success so far due to a lack of suitable functional nanoformulations, which are safe, non-toxic, excretable from the body and have favorable pharmacokinetics for effective accumulation in the tumor. As follows from the results of our on-going research activities, many of the above-stated problems can we solved by the employment of nanomaterials fabricated by clean laser-ablative synthesis. Here, we review our recent data on some promising nanomaterials, prepared by this method, including biodegradable silicon (Si) nanoparticles (NPs), 152Sm-enriched samarium oxide NPs, and elemental bismuth (Bi) NPs, which can be used either as carriers/agents in radionuclide therapy, or sensitizers in radiative diagnostics or therapy. Advantages of proposed approach include exceptional purity and flexibility in synthesizing of NPs of required physico-chemical parameters (controlled size, shape, composition, and surface conditioning of NPs). Advances in laser-ablative fabrication of novel nanomaterials open up avenues for future implementations of nuclear and radiative medicine approaches for safe and efficient theranostics of tumors and metastasis.
Nanocrystalline silicon (Si) films were synthesized by nanosecond laser ablation of crystalline Si targets in low-pressure helium (He) and nitrogen (N2) gas mixtures. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the prepared samples were found to depend on the He/N2 ratio in the gas mixture. The ablation pure He atmosphere allowed us to prepare Si nanocrystals (NCs) exhibiting a PL band in red-near-IR range, while samples prepared in the presence of N2 exhibited a strong PL band with maximum in the green-yellow region. Such a modification of PL properties can be explained by the presence of amorphous Si oxynitride (a-SiNxOy) on the surface of Si-NCs. Structural studies of the prepared samples by means of the scanning electron microscopy revealed different morphology for Si-NCs produced under different gas mixtures. After treating of the films by ultrasound and dispersing in water, Si-NCs can be used as novel biodegradable markers for bioimaging, while the observed spectral tailoring effect makes possible an adjustment of the PL emission of such markers to a concrete bioimaging task.
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