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A solvothermal method was used to prepare a series of Yb3+/Tm3+/Ca2+ co-doped NaYF4 nanoparticles with different Ca2+ contents. Strong upconversion blue fluorescence could be observed under 980 nm laser excitation of the samples. The effect of different Ca2+ contents on the luminescence intensity was investigated, and it was found that the UV-vis upconversion luminescence increased and then decreased with an increasing Ca2+ concentration during the increase of the Ca2+ content from 0 mol% to 25 mol%, reaching the strongest fluorescence at 15 mol%, which was up to about 28 times stronger than that without Ca2+ doping. Furthermore, the mechanism was investigated, and it was found that the doping of Ca2+ disrupted the symmetry of the crystal field, resulting in a significant enhancement of the overall fluorescence. Applied to fluorescence intensity ratio thermometry, the absolute and relative sensitivities are as high as 0.0418 K−1 and 2.31% K−1, respectively, with a minimum temperature resolution of 0.0129 K.
Current trends in materials and life sciences are flanked by the need to push detection limits to single molecules or single cells, enable the characterization of increasingly complex matrices or sophisticated nanostructures, speed up the time of analysis, reduce instrument complexity and costs, and improve the reliability of data. This requires suitable analytical tools such as spectroscopic, separation and imaging techniques, mass spectrometry, and hyphenated techniques as well as sensors and their adaptation to application-specific challenges in the environmental, food, consumer product, health sector, nanotechnology, and bioanalysis. Increasing concerns about health threatening known or emerging pollutants in drinking water, consumer products, and food and about the safety of nanomaterials led to a new awareness of the importance of analytical sciences. Another important driver in this direction is the increasing demand by legislation, particularly in view of the 17 sustainable development goals by the United Nations addressing clean energy, industry, and innovation, sustainable cities, clean water, and responsible consumption and production. In this respect, also the development of analytical methods that enable the characterization of material flows in production processes and support recycling concepts of precious raw materials becomes more and more relevant. In the future, this will provide the basis for greener production in the chemical industry utilizing recycled or sustainable starting materials.
This makes analytical chemistry an essential player in terms of the circular economy helping to increase the sustainability of production processes. In the life sciences sector, products based on proteins, such as therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies, increase in importance. These increasingly biotechnologically produced functional biomolecules pose a high level of complexity of matrix and structural features that can be met only by highly advanced methods for separation, characterization, and detection. In addition, metrological traceability and target definition are still significant challenges for the future, particularly in the life sciences.
However, innovative reference materials as required for the health and food sector and the characterization of advanced materials can only be developed when suitable analytical protocols are available. The so-called reproducibility crisis in sciences underlines the importance of improved measures of quality control for all kinds of measurements and material characterization. This calls for thorough method validation concepts, suitable reference materials, and regular interlaboratory comparisons of measurements as well as better training of scientists in analytical sciences.
The important contribution of analytical sciences to these developments is highlighted by a broad collection of research papers, trend articles, and critical reviews from these different application fields. Special emphasis is dedicated to often-overlooked quality assurance and reference materials.
NaYF4:Yb3+/Tm3+@NaGdF4:Nd3+/Yb3+ upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) were prepared using a solvothermal method, and the effects of key factors such as the content of sensitiser Nd 3+ and Yb3+ on their luminescence properties were investigated. The nanoparticles are homogeneous in size and well dispersed. Under 808 nm excitation, it can produce strong upconversion fluorescence. At the same time, the nanoparticles have good temperature-sensing properties at the thermally coupled energy levels of 700 nm and 646 nm for Tm3+. Using its fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR), accurate temperature measurements can be performed, and it has been found that it exhibits different temperature sensing properties in low and high-temperature regions. The maximum relative sensitivity was found to be 0.88% K-1 and 1.89% K-1 for the lowtemperature region of 285 K-345 K and the high-temperature region of 345 K-495 K. The nanoparticles were applied to the internal temperature measurement of lithium batteries and the actual high-temperature environment, respectively, and were found to have good temperature measurementt performance.
A first tricolor fluorescent pH nanosensor is presented, which was rationally designed from biocompatible carboxylated polystyrene nanoparticles and two analyte-responsive molecular fluorophores. Its fabrication involved particle staining with a blue-red-emissive dyad, consisting of a rhodamine moiety responsive to acidic pH values and a pH-inert quinoline fluorophore, followed by the covalent attachment of a fluorescein dye to the particle surface that signals neutral and basic pH values with a green fluorescence. These sensor particles change their fluorescence from blue to red and green, depending on the pH and excitation wavelength, and enable ratiometric pH measurements in the pH range of 3.0−9.0. The localization of the different sensor dyes in the particle core and at the particle surface was confirmed with fluorescence microscopy utilizing analogously prepared polystyrene microparticles. To show the application potential of these polystyrene-based multicolor sensor particles, fluorescence microscopy studies with a human A549 cell line were performed, which revealed the cellular uptake of the pH nanosensor and the differently colored emissions in different cell organelles, that is, compartments of the endosomal-lysosomal pathway. Our results demonstrate the underexplored potential of biocompatible polystyrene particles for multicolor and multianalyte sensing and bioimaging utilizing hydrophobic and/or hydrophilic stimuli-responsive luminophores.
Atomically precise gold nanoclusters are a fascinating class of nanomaterials that exhibit molecule-like properties and have outstanding photoluminescence (PL). Their ultrasmall size, molecular chemistry, and biocompatibility make them extremely appealing for selective biomolecule labeling in investigations of biological mechanisms at the cellular and anatomical levels. In this work, we report a simple route to incorporate a preformed Au25 nanocluster into a model bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein. A new approach combining small-angle X-ray scattering and molecular modeling provides a clear localization of a single Au25 within the protein to a cysteine residue on the gold nanocluster surface.
Attaching Au25 to BSA strikingly modifies the PL properties with enhancement and a redshift in the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window. This study paves the way to conrol the design of selective sensitive probes in biomolecules through a ligand-based strategy to enable the optical detection of biomolecules in a cellular environment by live imaging.
Biofilms are ubiquitous in nature and in the man-made environment. Given their harmful effects on human health, an in-depth understanding of biofilms and the monitoring of their formation and growth are important. Particularly relevant for many metabolic processes and survival strategies of biofilms is their extracellular pH. However, most conventional techniques are not suited for minimally invasive pH measurements of living biofilms. Here, a fluorescent nanosensor is presented for ratiometric measurements of pH in biofilms in the range of pH 4.5–9.5 using confocal laser scanning microscopy. The nanosensor consists of biocompatible polystyrene nanoparticles loaded with pH-inert dye Nile Red and is surface functionalized with a pH-responsive fluorescein dye. Its performance was validated by fluorometrically monitoring the time-dependent changes in pH in E. coli biofilms after glucose inoculation at 37 °C and 4 °C. This revealed a temperature-dependent decrease in pH over a 4-h period caused by the acidifying glucose metabolism of E. coli. These studies demonstrate the applicability of this nanosensor to characterize the chemical microenvironment in biofilms with fluorescence methods.
Asymmetrically bridged aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals and aroyl-S,N-ketene acetal multichromophores can be readily synthesized in consecutive three-, four-, or five-component syntheses in good to excellent yields by several successive Suzuki-couplings of aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals and bis(boronic)acid esters. Different aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals as well as linker molecules yield a library of 23 multichromophores with substitution and linker pattern-tunable emission properties. This allows control of different communication pathways between the chromophores and of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and energy transfer (ET) properties, providing elaborate aggregation-based fluorescence switches.
Anear-infrared (NIR) light-triggered release method for nitric oxide (NO) was developed utilizing core/shell NaYF4: Tm/Yb/Ca@NaGdF4:Nd/Yb up-conversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) bearing a mesoporous silica (mSiO2) shell loaded with theNOdonor S-nitroso-N-acetyl-DL-penicillamine (SNAP). To avoid overheating in biological samples, Nd3+ was chosen as a sensitizer, Yb3+ ions as the bridging sensitizer, andTm3+ ions as UV-emissive activator while co-doping with Ca2+ was done to enhance the luminescence of the activatorTm3+.NOrelease from SNAP was triggered by an NIR-UV up-conversion process, initiated by 808nmlight absorbed by the Nd3+ ions.NOrelease was confirmed by the Griess method. Under 808nmirradiation, the viability of the liver cancer cell line HepG2 significantly decreased with increasing UCNPs@mSiO2-SNAP concentration. For a UCNPs@mSiO2-SNAP concentration of 200 μgml−1, the cell survival probability was 47%. These results demonstrate that UCNPs@mSiO2-SNAP can induce the release of apoptosis-inducingNOby NIR irradiation.
Light-emitting nanoparticles like semiconductor nanocrystals (termed quantum dots, QDs) are promising candidates for biosensing and bioimaging applications based on their bright and stable photoluminescent properties. As high-quality QDs are often synthesized in organic solvents, strategies needed to be developed to render them water-dispersible without affecting their optical properties and prevent changes in postmodification steps like the biofunctionalization with antibodies or DNA. Despite a large number of studies on suitable surface modification procedures, the preparation of water-soluble QDs for nanobiotechnology applications still presents a challenge. To highlight the advantages of surface silanization, we systematically explored the influence of the core/multishell architecture of CdSe/CdS/ZnS QDs and the silanization conditions on the optical properties of the resulting silanized QDs. Our results show that the optical properties of silica-coated CdSe/CdS/ZnS QDs are best preserved in the presence of a thick CdS (6 monolayers (ML)) intermediate shell, providing a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PL QY), and a relatively thick ZnS (4.5 ML) external shell, effectively shielding the QDs from the chemical changes during silica coating. In addition to the QD core/shell architecture, other critical parameters of the silica-coating process, that can have an influence on the optical properties of the QD, include the choice of the surfactant and its concentration used for silica coating. The highest PL QY of about 46% was obtained by a microemulsion silica-coating procedure with the surfactant Brij L4, making these water-dispersible QDs to wellsuited optical reporters in future applications like fluorescence immunoassays, biomedicine, and bioimaging.
A series of NaYF4:Yb3+/Tm3+@NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ nanoparticles doped with Tm3+ and Er3+ were successfully prepared by the solvothermal method. Under 980 nm laser excitation, intense upconversion emission peaks of Tm3+ and Er3+ were observed for all samples. By doping Tm3+ and Er3+ with core–shell partitioning, not only a significant increase in fluorescence intensity could be achieved, but also simultaneous temperature measurements on multiple thermocouple energy levels could be realised. In addition, the temperature sensing performance of different thermocouple energy levels was also investigated, and it was found that the 3 F3 → 3 H6 and 1 G4 → 3 F4 thermocouple energy level pairs of Tm3+ were the best, with maximum absolute sensitivity and maximum relative sensitivity of up to 0.0250 K−1 and 2.155% K−1 respectively, higher than the sensitivity of other thermocouple energy levels. It has a temperature resolution of less than 0.0139 K, which is lower than that of most materials available today. By using this material as a probe to build a fiber optic temperature sensor platform, it was found to have reliable temperature measurement performance.
The influence of solvent polarity and surface ligand rigidification on the SWIR emission profile of gold nanoclusters with an anistropic surface was investigated. A strong enhancement of the SWIR emission band at 1200 nm was observed when measuring in different local environments: in solution, in polymer composites, and in solids. SWIR in vivo imaging of mice assisted by deep learning after intravenous administration of these gold nanoclusters provides high definition pseudo-3D views of vascular blood vessels.
Despite considerable advances in synthesizing high-quality core/shell upconversion (UC) nanocrystals (NC; UCNC) and UCNC photophysics, the application of near-infrared (NIR)-excitable lanthanide-doped UCNC in the life and material sciences is still hampered by the relatively low upconversion luminescence (UCL) of UCNC of small size or thin protecting shell. To obtain deeper insights into energy transfer and surface quenching processes involving Yb3+ and Er3+ ions, we examined energy loss processes in differently sized solid core NaYF4 nanocrystals doped with either Yb3+ (YbNC; 20% Yb3+) or Er3+ (ErNC; 2% Er3+) and co-doped with Yb3+ and Er3+ (YbErNC; 20% Yb3+ and 2% Er3+) without a surface protection shell and coated with a thin and a thick NaYF4 shell in comparison to single and co-doped bulk materials. Luminescence studies at 375 nm excitation demonstrate backenergy transfer (BET) from the 4G11/2 state of Er3+ to the 2F5/2 state of Yb3+, through which the red Er3+ 4F9/2 state is efficiently populated. Excitation power density (P)-dependent steady state and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements at different excitation and emission wavelengths enable to separate surface-related and volume-related effects for two-photonic and threephotonic processes involved in UCL and indicate a different influence of surface passivation on the green and red Er3+ emission.
The intensity and lifetime of the latter respond particularly to an increase in volume of the active UCNC core. We provide a threedimensional random walk model to describe these effects that can be used in the future to predict the UCL behavior of UCNC.