Synthesis of bismuth-based coordination polymer for biomedical applications

Abstract

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are of great interest for biomedicine due to their high loading capacity of various drugs, dyes, and other small molecules. In vivo application of MOFs requires small sizes of nanoparticles and their high colloidal stability. Here we designed the first nano-sized MOFs composed of bismuth and trimesic acid by a rapid microwave-assisted solvothermal method. After coating of the prepared nanoparticles with polyacrylic acid they show improved colloidal stability in aqueous solutions. These particles have 2.2 times higher X-ray attenuation ability than a clinically used BaSO4 agent. Also, they demonstrate high loading efficiency for organic dyes: 35.5 % w/w for Rose bengal and 17.9 % w/w for Rhodamine B.