Recent Advances on Functionalized Upconversion Nanoparticles for Detection of Small Molecules and Ions in Biosystems

• Main Authors: Gu, Bin, Zhang, Qichun
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Upconversion; Small Molecules
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/87265; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/44379
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Significant progress on upconversion-nanoparticle (UCNP)-based probes is witnessed in recent years. Compared with traditional fluorescent probes (e.g., organic dyes, metal complexes, or inorganic quantum dots), UCNPs have many advantages such as non-autofluorescence, high chemical stability, large light-penetration depth, long lifetime, and less damage to samples. This article focuses on recent achievements in the usage of lanthanide-doped UCNPs as efficient probes for biodetection since 2014. The mechanisms of upconversion as well as the luminescence resonance energy transfer process is introduced first, followed by a detailed summary on the recent researches of UCNP-based biodetections including the detection of inorganic ions, gas molecules, reactive oxygen species, and thiols and hydrogen sulfide.