Luminescent mesoporous silica nanoparticles for biomedical applications: Synthesis and characterization

We report the synthesis and detailed spectroscopic characterization of intrinsically/lable-free luminescent mesoporous silica nanoparticles (L-MSN) with low size dispersion which may have useful biomedical applications. Our studies suggest that the luminescence of L-MSN is due to the formation of carbon dots (C-Dots) which are the integral part of L-MSN as shown by fluorescence anisotropy measurements. Luminescence is found to be stable as a function of pH as well as long time light exposure. L-MSN may be explored for biomedical imaging as well as drug delivery applications. Fluorescence anisotropy decay of C-Dots and L-MSN suspended in buffer at pH 7115