Fluorescent Nanocomposite of Embedded Ceria Nanoparticles in Electrospun Chitosan Nanofibers

Nader Shehata; Effat Samir; Soha Gaballah; Aya Hamed; Marwa Saad; Mohammed Salah

doi:10.1007/s10895-016-2010-1

Fluorescent Nanocomposite of Embedded Ceria Nanoparticles in Electrospun Chitosan Nanofibers

J Fluoresc. 2017 Mar;27(2):767-772. doi: 10.1007/s10895-016-2010-1. Epub 2016 Dec 28.

Authors

Nader Shehata^{1

2

3}, Effat Samir^{4

5}, Soha Gaballah^{4

6}, Aya Hamed^{7

4}, Marwa Saad^{4

6}, Mohammed Salah^{7

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Engineering Mathematics and Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21544, Egypt. nader83@vt.edu.
² Center of Smart Nanotechnology and Photonics (CSNP), SmartCIResearch Center, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21544, Egypt. nader83@vt.edu.
³ USTAR - The Utah Science Technology and Research Agency (USTAR) Bioinnovations Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 84341, USA. nader83@vt.edu.
⁴ Center of Smart Nanotechnology and Photonics (CSNP), SmartCIResearch Center, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21544, Egypt.
⁵ Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21544, Egypt.
⁶ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21544, Egypt.
⁷ Department of Engineering Mathematics and Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21544, Egypt.

PMID: 28032280
DOI: 10.1007/s10895-016-2010-1

Abstract

This paper introduces a detailed optical characterization for a novel fluorescent biodegradable nanocomposite of electro-spun chitosan nanofibers with in-situ embedded cerium oxide (ceria) nanoparticles as the nanocomposite optical fluorescent material. Under near ultra-violet excitation, this synthesized nanocomposite emits a visible green wavelength at nearly 520nmwith different intensities according to the concentration of the embedded fluorescent material; i.e. ceria nanoparticles. This emission is due to the synthesized ceria nanoparticles optical tri-valiant cerium ions ce³⁺, associated with formed oxygen vacancies with a direct allowed bandgap around 3.5 eV. Optical characteristics such as fluorescence emission intensity, absorbance dispersion, and direct bandgap are presented besides structural characteristics such as FTIR spectroscopy, and SEM analysis. The synthesized optical nanocomposite could be helpful in many further applications such as bio-imaging, biomedical engineering, and environmental optical sensors.

Keywords: Ceria nanoparticles; Electro-spun nanofibers; Electrospinning; Fluorescence.