Nanoparticle metrology of silica colloids and super-resolution studies using the ADOTA fluorophore

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Stewart, Hazel L and Yip, Philip and Rosenberg, Martin and Sørensen, Thomas Just and Laursen, Bo W and Knight, Alex E and Birch, David J S (2016) Nanoparticle metrology of silica colloids and super-resolution studies using the ADOTA fluorophore. Measurement Science and Technology, 27 (4). 045007. ISSN 0957-0233 (https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-0233/27/4/045007)

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Abstract

We describe how a new fluorescent dye, methyl ADOTA (N-methyl-azadioxatriangulenium tetrafluoroborate), is an improvement on dyes reported previously for measuring silica nanoparticle size in sols using the decay of fluorescence anisotropy. Me(thyl)-ADOTA possesses the unusual combination of having a red emission and a long fluorescence lifetime of ~ 20 ns, leaving it better-placed to reveal particle sizes at the upper end of the 1-10 nm measurement range. For stable LUDOX colloids, Me-ADOTA is shown to offer higher measurement precision in ≤ 1/30th of the measurement time required for dyes previously used. In measurement times of only ~ 20 mins nanoparticle radii for LUDOX SM-AS, AM and AS-40 of 4.6 ± 0.3 nm, 5.9 ± 0.2 nm and 11.1 ± 1.1 nm, are in good agreement with two of the manufacturer’s values of 3.5 nm, 6 nm and 11 nm respectively. Unlike the Si-ADOTA (N-(4-(triethoxysilylethyl)urea-phenyl-) ADOTA tetrafluoroborate) derivative containing a reactive trimetoxysilane group, Me-ADOTA is shown to not induce aggregation of colloidal silica. Measurements on nanoparticles growing in an acidic silica hydrogel at pH 0.94, prior to the gel time of ~ 50 hr, reveals an average nanoparticle size up to ~ 6.3 nm, significantly larger than the 4.5 nm reported previously. The difference is most certainly due to the longer fluorescence lifetime of Me-ADOTA (~ 20 ns) revealing the presence of larger particles. Studies of growing silica clusters in an alcogel of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) were able to resolve a monotonically increasing average radius of 1.42 ± 0.10 nm to 1.81 ± 0.14 nm over a period of 48 hr. We have also assessed a carboxylic acid derivative of ADOTA (N-(3-carboxypropylene)-ADOTA tetrafluoroborate - Acid-ADOTA) using dSTORM super-resolution microscopy. Although demonstrating high photochemical stability and blinking, its lower brightness and relative propensity to aggregate limits Acid-ADOTA’s use for dSTORM.

ORCID iDs

Stewart, Hazel L, Yip, Philip ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2725-7474, Rosenberg, Martin, Sørensen, Thomas Just, Laursen, Bo W, Knight, Alex E and Birch, David J S ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6400-1270;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)