Activating ultralow upconversion nanothermometry in neodymium sublattice for heart tissue imaging rapid-responsive

Abstract

The fields of biosensitivity and biological imaging have received a lot of attention from rare earth-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). However, owing to the relatively large energy difference of rare earth ions, biological sensitivity based on UCNPs is restricted to detect at low temperature. Here, we design core-shell-shell NaErF4:Yb@Nd2O3@SiO2 UCNPs as a dual-mode bioprobe that produces blue, green, and red multi-color upconversion emissions at extremely low temperatures between 100 K and 280 K. Based on the thermally coupled energy levels (TCELs) of Er3+ (2H11/2 and 4S3/2) and Nd3+ (4F5/2 and 4F3/2) at 100 K, the greatest relative sensitivity (SR) approaches 12.7% K−1. NaErF4:Yb@Nd2O3@SiO2 injection is used to achieve blue upconversion emission imaging of frozen heart tissue, showing that this UCNP can serve as a low-temperature sensitive biological fluorescence.