Special Issue "Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Materials"

Guest Editor
Dr. Dominik Brühwiler
University of Zürich, Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland
Website: http://www.aci.unizh.ch/bruehwiler/start.html
E-Mail:
Interests: mesoporous materials; zeolites; host-guest inclusion compounds; energy transfer; luminescence; solar energy conversion

Dear Colleagues,

Research on functional hybrid materials has become one of the most rapidly developing fields of materials chemistry. In its most basic sense, a hybrid material is obtained by combining at least two components, commonly inorganic and organic, at the nanometer scale. Methods to synthesize inorganic-organic hybrid materials are often based on soft chemistry approaches, such as sol-gel processes, intercalation, exchange, or grafting. Considering the variety of combinations of components (and properties), inorganic-organic hybrids represent an intriguing class of materials with a large spectrum of applications. This special issue of Materials focuses on the synthesis of functional inorganic-organic hybrid materials, on the elucidation of structure-property relationships, as well as on the organization of hybrid building blocks on the micro- and macroscopic scale.

Dr. Dominik Brühwiler
Guest Editor

Submission

All papers should be submitted to materials@mdpi.org. To be published continuously until the deadline and papers will be listed together at the special website.

Submitted papers should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed quarterly journal published by Molecular Diversity Preservation International. Review manuscripts: Before writing their manuscripts, potential authors of review articles should forward the title and a short abstract to materials@mdpi.org. We will then provide feedback on the suitability of the topic.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

Article Processing Charges (APC) will be waived for well prepared manuscripts of invited papers. For the first two volumes of this new journal the APC are of 300 CHF (or 550 CHF per paper for those papers that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections).

• Synthetic Strategies
• Hierarchical Organization
• Silica-based Hybrid Materials
• Porous Structures
• Smart Materials
• Biological
• Medical
• Optical
• Electronic Applications

Title: Hybrid Inorganic‐Organic Nanoparticles and Their Utilization in Biomedical Imaging
Authors: Lynn E. Samuelson, Madeline J. Dukes and Darryl J. Bornhop
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235-1822, USA
Abstract: Bio‐compatible nanoparticles are regularly utilized by the biomedical community for research, diagnostic, and therapeutic purposes. Incorporation of inorganic elements into organic‐based nanoparticles, such as dendrimers, polymers and metal chelates, to yield probes capable of targeting disease and producing an array of multi‐modal molecular signatures will be highlighted, as well as inorganic nanoparticles modified with organic material. This review focuses on the development and application of hybrid nanoparticles MRI, PET, SPECT, CT, EM and luminescent molecular imaging.

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Porous Functional Silica Nanoparticles for Bio-Imaging Applications
Authors: Freddy Kleitz¹, Rémy Guillet-Nicolas¹ and Marc-André Fortin²
Affiliations: ¹ Canada Research Chair on Functional Nanostructured Materials, Department of Chemistry, Université Laval, G1V 0A6 Québec, QC, Canada; E-Mail: freddy.kleitz@chm.ulaval.ca
² Department of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada, G1V 0A6 and Axe métabolisme, santé vasculaire et rénale, CHUQ-CRSFA Québec, G1L 3L5 QC, Canada; E-Mail: marc-andre.fortin@gmn.ulaval.ca
Abstract: Nanoporous materials containing specific functional groups are attracting increasing scientific interest owing to their vast perspective of application in catalysis, selective sorption, separation technologies, imaging and as biomaterials. In particular, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (pore sizes between 2 and 50 nm) selectively modified for bio-medical applications such as drug delivery, cell targeting and diagnostic, have recently been developed. These areas of research are now expanding rapidly. The review focuses on the use of porous nanoparticles in the growing area of bio-imaging. A specific emphasis is put on nanostructured contrast agents and cell probes used in magnetic resonance (MRI) and fluorescence imaging. Current advances in synthesis, physico-chemical characterization of functionalized porous silica nanomaterials are discussed, as well as imaging procedures. The text further addresses fundamental imaging concepts of contrast agents and fluorescent probes, and biomedical issues such as cellular internalization, cytotoxicity and stability in physiological media. New developments in systems combining imaging and drug delivery and further perspectives of imaging applications are included.