RT Journal Article
T1 Transient energy trapping as a size-conserving surface passivation strategy for producing bright ultrasmall upconversion nanoprobes
A1 Huang, Fuhua
A1 Labrador Páez, Lucía
A1 Ågren, Hans
A1 Wang, Li
A1 Zhang, Jinglai
A1 Pu, Rui
A1 Zhan, Qiuqiang
A1 Widengren, Jerker
A1 Liu, Haichun
AB Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) have been widely exploited as nanoprobes or energy transducers in traditional as well as emerging biological applications, such as bioimaging, photodynamic therapy, optogenetics, gene editing. However, the breadth and depth of their utility in the biomedical areas are still not comparable to conventional luminescent probes, such as fluorescent dyes and semiconductor quantum dots. Their application is largely limited by their large size, typically > 20 nm, to ensure a sufficient luminescence brightness. In order to enhance the brightness of UCNPs without exceeding the critical size limitations for biomedical applications, we employ here a transient energy trapping effect as a nanoprobe surface passivation strategy to prevent deleterious distant energy migration in the host lattice, which is particularly prevalent in ultrasmall UCNPs and leads to luminescence quenching. We demonstrate this strategy by incorporating Tm3+ ions as energy trapping centers near the surface of sub-10 nm NaYF4: Yb, Er UCNPs and obtain an emission enhancement by almost one order of magnitude without any increment on the nanoparticle size. Our work presents a promising strategy for the preparation of ultrasmall and bright upconversion nanoprobes that are less vulnerable to surface quenching and that potentially minimize the interference with the object. This facilitates their biomedical applications as here demonstrated by unprecedented high-quality cell labeling and imaging, featured with very uniform nanoparticle distribution in the outer nuclear region.
PB Elsevier
YR 2023
FD 2023-01-01
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/116279
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/116279
LA eng
NO Fuhua Huang, Lucía Labrador-Páez, Hans Ågren, Li Wang, Jinglai Zhang, Rui Pu, Qiuqiang Zhan, Jerker Widengren, Haichun Liu, Transient energy trapping as a size-conserving surface passivation strategy for producing bright ultrasmall upconversion nanoprobes, Nano Energy, Volume 105, 2023, 108015, ISSN 2211-2855, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2022.108015.
NO Fundación Nacional de Ciencias Naturales de China
NO Universidad de Henan
NO Fundación Sueca para la Investigación Estratégica
DS Docta Complutense
RD 4 abr 2025