Manganese Doped Zinc Germanate (Mn:Zn2GeO4)—Exploring a Novel Synthesis and Its Potential Application in Bioimaging

Compared to traditional organic fluorescent dyes used in bioimaging, semi-conductor nanocrystals possess better photo-luminescent properties, such as a broad absorption, narrow and symmetric emission band, large Stokes shift, and weak self-absorption. However, many of these nanocrystals, like CdSe and CdTe, are toxic to biological systems and to the environment. Along with other limitations, such as solubility, luminescence, and cost, incorporating these nanocrystals has presented as a challenge to researchers. However, this novel synthesis of Mn:Zn2GeO4 overcomes many of these limitations and exhibits characteristics promising to the realm of bioimaging. By incorporating a hydrothermal method under pH- controlled conditions, this new nanocrystal shows promising results, such as a quantum yield of 52% under UV irradiation with persistent photoluminescence. Already shown to be non-toxic and environmentally benign for large-scale production, an in-situ addition of poly-acrylic acid allows this particle to be soluble in water as well. Due to being doped with a magnetic element (Mn), this particle may have potential in binary probing with both fluorescent and magnetic functions so that deeper labeled tissues may be examined with MRI. In this work, we had successfully synthesized a promising cost-effective particle with potential in bioimaging and performed exploratory analysis on the nanoparticle by characterizing it via X-Ray Diffraction as well as finding the morphology with a scanning electron microscope, as well as measuring excitation using photoluminescent spectroscopy.