Lanthanide phosphate (LnPO 4 ) rods as bio‐probes: A systematic investigation on structural, optical, magnetic, and biological characteristics

The proposed work involves an exclusive study on the synthesis protocol, crystal structure analysis, and imaging contrast features of unique lanthanide phosphates (LnPO 4 ). XRD and Raman spectra affirmed the ability of the proposed synthesis technique to achieve unique LnPO 4 devoid of impurities. The crystal structure analysis confirms the P121/c1 space setting of NdPO 4 , EuPO 4 , GdPO 4 , and TbPO 4 that all uniformly crystallizes in monoclinic unit cell. In a similar manner, the tetragonal crystal setting of DyPO 4 , ErPO 4 , HoPO 4 , and YbPO 4 that unvaryingly possess the I41/amd space setting is confirmed. Under the same synthesis conditions, the monoclinic (Eu) and tetragonal (Ho) lanthanide phosphates displayed uniform rod‐like morphologies. Absorption and luminescence properties of unique LnPO 4 were determined. In vitro biological studies demonstrated low toxicity levels of LnPO 4 and clearly distinguished fluorescence of TbPO 4 and EuPO 4 in Y79, retinoblastoma cell lines. The paramagnetic response of GdPO 4 , NdPO 4 , DyPO 4 , TbPO 4 , and HoPO 4 facilitated excellent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast features. Meanwhile, GdPO 4 , DyPO 4 , HoPO 4 , and YbPO 4 possessing higher X‐ray absorption coefficient than clinical contrast Omnipaque™ exhibited high computed tomography (CT) efficiency. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 107B: 1372–1383, 2019.