Green synthesis of highly dispersed ytterbium and thulium co-doped sodium yttrium fluoride microphosphors for in situ light upconversion from near-infrared to blue in animals

Yuan Pu; Lifeng Lin; Dan Wang; Jie-Xin Wang; Jun Qian; Jian-Feng Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2017.10.017

Green synthesis of highly dispersed ytterbium and thulium co-doped sodium yttrium fluoride microphosphors for in situ light upconversion from near-infrared to blue in animals

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Feb 1:511:243-250. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.10.017. Epub 2017 Oct 7.

Authors

Yuan Pu¹, Lifeng Lin², Dan Wang³, Jie-Xin Wang⁴, Jun Qian⁵, Jian-Feng Chen⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Research Centre of the Ministry of Education for High Gravity Engineering and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Research Centre of the Ministry of Education for High Gravity Engineering and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China. Electronic address: wangdan@mail.buct.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Sensing Technologies, Zhejiang University, 310058 Hangzhou, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Research Centre of the Ministry of Education for High Gravity Engineering and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.

PMID: 29028575
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.10.017

Abstract

We report a simple, low cost and environmentally friendly method to prepare NaYF₄:Yb³⁺, Tm³⁺ upconversion microphosphors (UCMPs) by thermal decomposition of rare earth-trifluoroacetate precursors using paraffin as the high boiling non-coordinating solvent. The UCMPs exhibited cubic phase with defined shape and bright upconversion luminescence. After coating with amphiphilic polymers of phospholipid-polyethylene glycol, the NaYF₄:Yb³⁺, Tm³⁺ UCMPs were highly dispersed in aqueous solutions and exhibited low cytotoxicity. Furthermore, we explored the use of the micro-injected micro-sized NaYF₄:Yb³⁺, Tm³⁺ particles for converting of near infrared into blue light in mice brain. The in vivo macroscopic upconversion luminescence imaging results showed that UCMPs located at 1mm depth in the brain could be clearly distinguished. Microscopic upconversion luminescence imaging of the brain sections in vitro revealed that the UCMPs embedded at the particular location in brain tissues of mice were stable without significant diffusion in two weeks.

Keywords: Brain imaging; Green synthesis; In vivo; NaYF(4):Yb(3+), Tm(3+) microphosphors; Near-infrared; Upconversion luminescence.

MeSH terms

Animals
Fluorescent Dyes* / chemical synthesis
Fluorescent Dyes* / chemistry
Fluorescent Dyes* / pharmacology
Fluorides* / chemistry
Fluorides* / pharmacology
Male
Mice
NIH 3T3 Cells
Optical Imaging / methods*
Thulium* / chemistry
Thulium* / pharmacology
Ytterbium* / chemistry
Ytterbium* / pharmacology
Yttrium* / chemistry
Yttrium* / pharmacology

Substances

Fluorescent Dyes
sodium yttriumtetrafluoride
Yttrium
Thulium
Ytterbium
Fluorides