In this work, an inorganic multifunctional nanovehicle was tailored as a carrier to deliver anticancer drug for tumor optical imaging and therapy. The nanovehicle could be used as a dually targeted drug nanovehicle by bonded magnetical (passive) and folic acid (active) targeting capabilities. In addition, it was developed using rhodamine 6G (R6G) as a fluorescence reagent, and an α-zirconium phosphate nanoplatform (Zr(HPO4)2·H2O, abbreviated as α-ZrP) as the anticancer drug nanovehicle. The novel drug-release system was designed and fabricated by intercalation of α-ZrP with magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles and anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), followed by reacting with a folate acid-chitosan-rhodamine6G (FA-CHI-R6G) complex, and then α-ZrP intercalated with Fe3O4 nanoparticles and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) was successfully encapsulated into chitosan (CHI). The resultant multifunctional drug delivery system was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, photoluminescence spectra, magnetometry, fluorescence microscopy imaging studies and other characterization methods. Simultaneously, the drug release in vitro on the obtained nanocomposites that exhibited a sustained release behavior was carried out in buffer solution at 37 °C, which demonstrated clearly that the nanocomposites shown a sustained release behavior. Meanwhile, cell culture experiments also indicated that the drug-release system had the potential to be used as an dually targeted drug nanovehicle into the tumor cells.
In this work, monodispersed CeO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 nanospheres were successfully synthesized via three-step method, which is traditional hydrothermal dip-coating-anneal method, and subsequent facile calcination at 600 °C for 4 h. The structure of obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), highresolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The results showed that highly uniform CeO 2 microspheres and monodispersed CeO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 nanospheres were obtained, the sizes of CeO 2 microspheres and CeO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 nanospheres were ~100nm and ~125nm. Besides that, the photocatalytic activities of CeO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 nanocomposites were evaluated by photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light. CeO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 nanospheres exhibited a wide visible-light absorption with an edge at ca. 800 nm, which indicated a wide red shift comparing to that of individual CeO 2 microspheres ( ca. 450 nm) and individual Bi 2 O 3 nanoparticles( ca. 450 nm). Further more, the obtained CeO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 nanospheres had remarkable photocatalytic degradation activities of dye under visible light compared with the activities of two individual photocatalysts of CeO 2 microspheres and Bi 2 O 3 NP with the same concentration. The higher photocatalytic degradation activities of the photocatalysts could be ascribed to the following factors: (1) large specific surface area of CeO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 nanospheres with small size, (2) the efficient separation of photogenerated electrons and holes of the photocatalysts, (3) a wide visible-light photoabsorption range(700nm > λ > 400nm). Therefore, small monodispersed CeO 2 /Bi 2 O 3 nanospheres were designed by a simple route with efficient photocatalytic activity.
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