Chemosensors luminescent silica nanoparticles

Luminescent silica nanoparticles are, in our opinion, the most promising and valuable of aU the species presented till now in this brief introduction they are potentially interesting for many applications like energy production and storage, catalysis and in particular sensing. After a description of the most common preparation methods in Sect. 2, we will present the state of the art for these particles as far as their application as chemosensors is concerned. 

We will discuss hereafter many recent examples of chemosensors based only on luminescent silica nanoparticles but, even if this can appear to be a narrow field, the scenario is instead very wide. Therefore, with the aim of clarity, we have divided them in two main sections, one dealing with systems presenting the signalling units on the surface (dye coated silica nanoparticles, DCSNs) and the other with systems presenting it segregated inside the silica matrix (DDSNs). Moreover, for both... 

Bonacchi S, Genovese D, Juris R et al (2010) Luminescent chemosensors based on silica nanoparticles. Top Curr Chem [this volume]... 

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