Luminescent and Magnetic α‑Fe2O3@Y2O3:Eu3+ Bifunctional Hollow Microspheres for Drug Delivery

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C 2017-09, Vol.121 (37), p.20279-20286
• Main Authors: Xia, Liaoyuan, Li, Xiangling, Zhu, Fangjia, Hu, Shaoheng, Huang, Le
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b05228

Fluorescent and magnetic bifunctional nanomaterials have found several applications in life sciences, including biological labeling, magnetic resonance imaging, gene therapy, and nanodrug delivery. In this work, we develop a facile route that combines the assisted-template approach with a homogeneous co-precipitation method and a high-temperature calcination process, allowing the successful preparation of fluorescent–magnetic α-Fe2O3@Y2O3:Eu3+ bifunctional hollow microspheres (BHMs) with mesoporous shells and hollow-core structures. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, emission spectroscopy, magnetic testing, and N2 adsorption techniques were employed to characterize the fluorescent–magnetic α-Fe2O3@Y2O3:Eu3+ BHMs. The results showed that the resulting BHMs exhibited uniformly spherical morphologies with mesoporous shells and hollow-core structures and were characterized by good dispersibility, photofluorescence, and magnetic responsiveness in solution. Ibuprofen loading and drug-release simulation experiments showed that the BHMs exhibited a high drug-loading capacity (126 mg/g) and a sustained drug-release profile, which would allow them to be employed as nanodrug carriers for the therapeutic treatment of malignant tumors.