(α-NaYbF4:Tm3+)/CaF2 Core/Shell Nanoparticles with Efficient Near-Infrared to Near-Infrared Upconversion for High-Contrast Deep Tissue Bioimaging

By Guanying Chen, Jie Shen, Tymish Y. Ohulchanskyy, Nayan J. Patel, A. Kutikov, Zhipeng Li, Jie Song, R. Pandey, Hans Ågren, Paras N. Prasad and 1 more. ACS Nano, 2012

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We describe the development of novel and biocompatible core/shell (α-NaYbF4:Tm3+)/CaF2 nanoparticles which exhibit highly efficient NIRin-NIRout upconversion (UC) for high contrast and deep bioimaging. When excited at ~980 nm, these nanoparticles emit photoluminescence (PL) peaked at ~800 nm. The quantum yield of this UC PL under low power density excitation (~0.3 W/cm2) is 0.6±0.1%. This high UC PL efficiency is realized by suppressing surface quenching effects via hetero-epitaxial growth of a biocompatible CaF2 shell which results in a 35-fold increase in the intensity of UC PL from the core. Small animal whole-body UC PL imaging with exceptional contrast (signal-to-background ratio of 310) is shown using BALB/c mice intravenously injected with aqueously dispersed nanoparticles (700 pmol/kg). High-contrast UC PL imaging of deep tissues is also demonstrated, using a nanoparticle-loaded synthetic fibrous mesh wrapped around rat femoral bone, and a cuvette with nanoparticle aqueous dispersion - covered with a 3.2-cm thick animal tissue (pork).

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/70f841e2c6fa825f1ef2e610deacd81fe9d143ac