Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 21, 2026
Synthesis of Core-shell Lanthanide-doped Upconversion Nanocrystals for Cellular Applications
Published on: November 10, 2017
Enhanced red emission from GdF3:Yb3+,Er3+ upconversion nanocrystals by Li+ doping and their application for
Wenyan Yin1, Lina Zhao, Liangjun Zhou
1Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.
Abstract:
Under 980 nm near-infrared (NIR) excitation, upconversion luminescent (UCL) emission of GdF(3):Yb,Er upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) synthesized by a simple and green hydrothermal process can be tuned from yellow to red by varying the concentration of dopant Li(+) ions. A possible mechanism for enhanced red upconverted radiation is proposed. A layer of silica was coated onto the surface of GdF(3):Yb,Er,Li UCNPs to improve their biocompatibility. The silica-coated GdF(3):Yb,Er,Li UCNPs show great advantages in cell labeling and in vivo optical imaging. Moreover, GdF(3) UCNPs also exhibited a positive contrast effect in T(1)-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These results suggest that the GdF(3) UCNPs could act as dual-modality biolabels for optical imaging and MRI.
