Anatase tio2 nps

CMD sodium salt (Mw = 10,000–20,000 Da), 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide·hydrochloride (EDC·HCl), N-hydroxysulfosuccinimide (NHS), dopamine·HCl, and anatase TiO₂ NPs (25 nm in diameter) were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO, USA). The NIR dye, FCR-675 amine, was purchased from BioActs (Incheon, Korea). Cy5.5 was purchased from Amersham Biosciences (NJ, USA). Singlet oxygen sensor green reagent was purchased from Life Technologies Korea LLC (Seoul, Korea). The ELISA complete kit for mouse IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α was purchased from Komabiotech (Seoul, Korea). All other reagents were analytical grade. SCC7 and NIH3T3 cell lines were purchased from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, Rockville, MD, USA). For cell culture, RPMI-1640, DMEM, trypsin-EDTA, and fetal bovine serum (FBS) were purchased from Welgene Inc. (Daegu, Korea). All experimental involving live animals were carried out in accordance with the relevant laws and institutional guidelines of Sungkyunkwan University. The Sungkyunkwan University institutional committees have approved all the experimental protocols.

Anatase TiO₂ NPs (Sigma-Aldrich Inc., St. Louis, MO, USA) with a nominal diameter less than 15 nm were used in this study. An activated silane coupling agent 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES, 99%, Aladdin Inc., Shanghai, China) was used for positive charge modification of TiO₂ NPs. Other chemical agents involved in positive charge modification include Dimethylformamide (DMF, 98%, Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China), 2-(9H-fluoren-9-ylmethoxycarbonylamino)oxyacetic acid (Fmoc-Aoa, Chem-Impex International, Inc., Wood Dale, IL, USA), N,N-Diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA, 99.5%, Sigma-Aldrich Inc., St. Louis, MO, USA), (Benzotriazole-1-yloxy)tripyrrolidinophosphonium hexafluorophosphate (PyBOP, 98%, EMD Chemicals, Inc., Gibbstown, NJ, USA), piperidine ( $\ge$ 99.5%, Sigma-Aldrich Inc., St. Louis, MO, USA), and ammonium solution (25%–28%, Tongsheng Inc., Yixing, China). The chemical agents used in the conjugation of folic acid on TiO₂ NPs were folic acid (FA, ≥97%, Sigma-Aldrich), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO, ≥99.7%, Sigma-Aldrich), 1-(3-Dimethylaminopropyl)-3-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC, 99%, Sigma-Aldrich), and N-Hydroxysuccinimide (NHS, 99%, Sigma-Aldrich).

PFO and MEH-PPV with weight-average molecular weight 58,200 and 40,000 g/mol, respectively were purchased from Sigma Aldrich (Saint Louis, Missouri, USA) and were used as received without further purification. The SiO₂ NPs in amorphous phase was synthesized by sol-gel method, as reported in our previous study [15 ], and mixed with anatase TiO₂ NPs (which was purchased from Sigma Aldrich) to form SiO₂/20 wt% TiO₂ NCs (STNCs) as prepared in our previous report [14 (link)]. The fixed ratio of PFO/10 wt% MEH-PPV hybrid, in a toluene solvent produced by Fluka, was prepared with various weight ratios of STNCs: 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt% by solution blending method. A spin coating technique with 2000 rpm for 20 s was used to deposit 70 μL from each sample onto a glass substrate (1.2 cm × 2 cm). All samples were annealed at 120 °C in a vacuum oven to remove the solvent.
To collect the both absorption and emission spectra as well as lifetime decays, Perkin Elmer Lambda 900 ultraviolet–visible Spectrometer and an Edinburgh Instrument FLSP920 spectrophotometer were used respectively. The thin films morphology was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) (Zeiss Supra 55VP, Oberkochen, Germany).