Theoretical Study of X‑ray Induced Energy Transfer (XIET) from Nanomaterial Donors to Nanomaterial Acceptors

A systematic theoretical study was carried out here to investigate a new phenomenon of X-ray induced energy transfer (XIET) within the purview of X-ray nanochemistry. XIET occurs between a strongly X-ray absorbing nanomaterial such as one or more gold nanoparticles (donors) and a weakly X-ray absorbing nanomaterial such as a hollow silica nanoparticle filled with water (acceptor), and part of the energy absorbed by the donors can be transferred to the acceptor when the two are positioned sufficiently close to each other and under 20–100 keV X-ray irradiation. XIET was studied as a function of dimension, composition, configuration and orientation of donors and acceptors, number of donors, and X-ray energy. Relative and absolute percentage XIET efficiencies were calculated. These results provide a theoretical framework to guide future experimental XIET studies.