Emerging upconversion nanoparticles for industry and biomedical application

Evgeny Khaydukov,Vladimir Semchishen,Kirill Khaydukov,Vasilina Rocheva,Ilya Asharchuk,Alexander Savelyev,Dmitry Khochenkov,Anastasia Sochilina,Alla Generalova,Andrey Nechaev

doi:10.1051/epjconf/201819003005

Abstract

In recent years, the overwhelming majority of the upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) prominent applications have originated from their unique luminescent properties. Due to original properties of inorganic UCNPs they attract the interest in numerous fields. We discussed a number of UCNP assisted techniques, such as biomedical imaging, therapy agents, anti-counterfeit labels and 3D printing, showing highly versatile and translatable UCNP photoluminescent nanotechnology for the applications in industry and biomedicine.

Highlights

The main engineering advantage of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) platform, unlike conventional luminescent labels, is based on the nature of the anti-Stokes luminescence
UCNPs consist of an inorganic host matrix co-doped with lanthanide ions act as the sensitizer (e.g., Yb3+ or Nd3+) and as the activator (e.g., Er3+/ Tm3+ or Ho3+)
To produce stable water inks the surface of UCNPs was modified by amphiphilic polymer

Summary

Introduction

The main engineering advantage of UCNP platform, unlike conventional luminescent labels, is based on the nature of the anti-Stokes luminescence. UCNPs consist of an inorganic host matrix (usually NaYF4, YF3, LiYF4) co-doped with lanthanide ions act as the sensitizer (e.g., Yb3+ or Nd3+) and as the activator (e.g., Er3+/ Tm3+ or Ho3+). The network of closely spaced sensitizer-ions resonantly absorbs NIR radiation and non-radiatively couples excitation energy to neighboring activator -ions. We demonstrated the effective and straightforward strategy for the NIR-activated polymerization of photocurable compositions containing UV-emitting upconversion nanomaterials.

Results

Conclusion