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Kiwifruit-like Persistent Luminescent Nanoparticles with HighPerformance and in Situ Activable Near-Infrared Persistent Luminescence for Long-Term in Vivo Bioimaging Xia-Hui Lin,† Liang Song,† Shan Chen,† Xiao-Feng Chen,† Jing-Jing Wei,‡ Jingying Li,‡ Guoming Huang,*,‡ and Huang-Hao Yang*,† †

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MOE Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology, State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and ‡College of Biological Science and Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, P. R. China S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: Persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) have great potential for bioimaging because they can eliminate the tissue autofluorescence and improve the signal-to-noise ratio significantly. High-temperature calcination is a necessary process for the PLNPs to achieve high luminescence intensity and long afterglow time. However, high-temperature calcination usually results in uncontrollable morphology and poor homogeneity of PLNPs, which greatly limit their applications. Therefore, there is still a high demand to find a suitable method for synthesizing PLNPs with high luminescence intensity and long afterglow time while maintaining their monodispersed morphology. Herein, we report a facile silica template method to synthesize PLNPs with a kiwifruit-like structure that can tolerate high-temperature calcination. The as-prepared kiwifruit-like SiO2@ZnGa2O4:Cr3+@SiO2 PLNPs have enhanced near-infrared persistent luminescence, uniform morphology and size, and good biocompatibility. Moreover, the SiO2@ ZnGa2O4:Cr3+@SiO2 PLNPs can be repeatedly activated by soft X-rays in situ and emit near-infrared persistent luminescence with long decay time, holding great potential for deep-tissue and long-term in vivo bioimaging. We believe that this study will open new perspectives for synthesizing high-performance PLNPs for optical imaging and diversified applications. KEYWORDS: persistent luminescence nanoparticles, X-ray activation, chromium-doped zinc gallate, high-temperature calcination, bioimaging source to activate SrAl2O4:Eu2+ PLNPs in deep tissue in animals.13 The combination of negligible scattering of X-rays in tissues and the high tissue penetration of NIR photons emitted from appropriate nanoprobes might offer the opportunity to achieve deep-tissue optical imaging with unprecedented spatial resolution.16 Despite the great promise of PLNPs, some challenges remain to be addressed. In general, the PLNPs should possess high luminescence performance, controllable size, regular morphology, and easy modification for practical biomedical applications.3,17−19 High-temperature calcination is a necessary process for obtaining PLNPs with good luminescence properties.3 Increase of calcination temperature can lead to an increase of the persistent luminescence intensity and decay time.20−23 However, the high-temperature annealing generally produces PLNPs with large size and poor dispersibility.23 Furthermore, the calcination of PLNPs at high temperature can result in the

1. INTRODUCTION Persistent luminescent nanoparticles (PLNPs), a newly developed generation of optical probes, have aroused intensive attention in optical diagnosis and luminescence bioimaging.1−5 They allow optical activation before bioimaging and remain luminescent without the need for external illumination, thereby eliminating the autofluorescence from biological tissues and improving the signal-to-noise ratio significantly.3 For example, Cr3+-doped zinc gallate (ZnGa2O4:Cr3+) has emerged as a promising optical nanoprobe for bioimaging applications due to its near-infrared (NIR) persistent luminescence that emitted within the tissue-transparency window.6−9 Normally, the PLNPs are activated by ultraviolet or orange/red light-emitting diode (LED) light sources; however, poor penetration depth of these light sources usually limited the applications of PLNPs in body.7 Recently, X-rays have been demonstrated to be used to activate the luminescent centers of various nanophosphors.10−15 The scattering of X-rays in tissues is negligible, and X-ray photons have much larger penetration depth in body tissues compared to ultraviolet or visible light. Our group have recently reported that soft X-ray photons were able to serve as a new form of activation © 2017 American Chemical Society

Received: September 13, 2017 Accepted: November 7, 2017 Published: November 7, 2017 41181

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13920 ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017, 9, 41181−41187

Research Article

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Scheme 1. Schematic Illustration of the Synthesis of SZGOS Nanoparticles and Their Applications for Long-Term in Vivo Bioimaging

Figure 1. TEM images of (a) SiO2 nanospheres, (b) SZGO nanoparticles, and (c) SZGOS nanoparticles. (d) XRD pattern, (e) high-resolution TEM image, and (f) EDX element mapping analysis of the SZGOS nanoparticles.

removal of surfactants and functional groups, making PLNPs tend to aggregate, which hampers their further functionalization. The tradeoff between the luminescence performance and morphology is not well resolved. Therefore, the development of new design approaches to achieve PLNPs with uniform morphology and good luminescence performance is still highly desired. In this work, we reported a novel silica template-assisted method to synthesize monodisperse PLNPs with high persistent

luminescence performance, controllable size, and defined morphology. We used SiO2 nanoparticles as the template to in situ synthesize ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ and then further coated a SiO2 shell to fabricate kiwifruit-like SiO2@ZnGa2O4:Cr3+@SiO2 (SZGOS) nanoparticles (Scheme 1). The size of the SZGOS nanoparticles was able to be easily tuned by controlling the size of SiO2 core and the thickness of SiO2 shell. The kiwifruit-like structure made the internal ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ tolerate highertemperature calcination and therefore endowed the 41182

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13920 ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017, 9, 41181−41187

Research Article

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Figure 2. TEM images of (a) ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles without calcination and (b−d) ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles after calcination for 4 h in air at 600, 800, and 950 °C, respectively. (e) SZGOS nanoparticles without calcination and (f−h) SZGOS nanoparticles after calcination for 4 h in air at 600, 800, and 950 °C, respectively.

ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ with better persistent luminescence performance. Moreover, this kiwifruit-like structure can generate steric constraints against the grain growth, which prevent the agglomeration of the whole nanoparticle during the hightemperature calcination. Therefore, the SZGOS nanoparticles had enhanced persistent luminescence and also maintained the monodisperse morphology after the calcination. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the highly dispersed SZGOS nanoparticles were able to be repeatedly activated by not only ultraviolet light or red LEDs but also soft X-rays, showing great potential in deeptissue and long-term in vivo bioimaging.

silica shell (Figure S1). It should be noted that the thickness of the silica layer can be tuned by the added concentration of tetraethylorthosilicate and ammonia water and therefore the size of the SZGOS nanoparticles can be further regulated by the thickness of silica layer (Figure S2). The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the obtained SZGOS nanoparticles revealed a pure spinel phase structure of ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ (Figure 1d). In addition, a clear lattice space of 0.251 nm corresponding to the (311) plane of ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ was observed in the highresolution TEM image of SZGOS nanoparticles (Figure 1e). These results confirmed the successful synthesis of ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles between the silica interlayers. The energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) element mapping analysis further confirmed the kiwifruit-like structure of the SZGOS nanoparticles, with ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles located between the silica interlayers (Figure 1f). 2.2. High-Temperature Calcination of the SZGOS Nanoparticles. High-temperature sintering is a necessary process to obtain the PLNPs with designed compositions and good luminescence performance.1,3 Higher calcination temperature can lead to better persistent luminescence performance of the PLNPs. We synthesized bare ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles as a control sample. The as-synthesized ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles had particle sizes of about 20 nm, as revealed by TEM (Figure 2a). The XRD pattern confirmed the phase structure of the ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles (Figure S3). However, under high-temperature calcination, the temperature significantly influenced the size and morphology of the ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles. The bare ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles aggregated obviously and grew to larger-size particles up to several microns with uncontrollable morphology when the temperature was increased from 600 to 950 °C (Figure 2b−d). The biomedical applications require PLNPs with small size and good monodispersity. The aggregated products cannot meet the requirement of in vivo biomedical applications. Then, we investigate the influence of the high temperature on the size and morphology of SZGOS nanoparticles. Remarkably, the SZGOS nanoparticles maintained their uniform size and morphology even at the sintering temperature up to 950 °C (Figure 2e−h). These results suggested that the introduction of the silica templates can effectively protect the intercalated ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles from agglomeration during the

2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 2.1. Synthesis and Characterization of the SZGOS Nanoparticles. We first prepared ∼100 nm SiO2 nanospheres through a modified Stöber method.24 The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image revealed that the as-synthesized SiO2 nanoparticles were nearly spherical with narrow size distribution (Figure 1a). We then synthesized SiO2@ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ nanoparticles using SiO2 nanospheres as hard templates.25,26 Zn2+, Ga3+, and Cr3+ metal ions were first mixed with ∼100 nm SiO2 nanospheres. The ζ potential of SiO2 nanospheres was −28.2 ± 3.5 mV; therefore, the metal ions were easily attached to SiO2 nanospheres through the electrostatic adsorption. During this mixing process, the solution rapidly became turbid white when the pH was adjusted to ∼7.5, which is ascribed to the formation of ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ precursors on the surface of silica nanospheres under alkaline conditions. The mixture then underwent a hydrothermal process. The TEM image confirmed the core− shell structure of the as-resulted SiO2@ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ (SZGO) nanoparticles, and the size was shown as about 120 nm (Figure 1b). The dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements showed that the hydrodynamic diameter of SZGO nanoparticles was about 134 nm, exhibiting an increase compared to the 110 nm of SiO2 templates (Supporting Information, Figure S1). We further coated the SZGO nanoparticles with a silica layer through wet chemical coating. The TEM image revealed that the thickness of the silica shell was about 17 nm and the size of the whole SZGOS nanoparticles was about 158 nm (Figure 1c). DLS analyses showed that the hydrodynamic diameters of SZGOS nanoparticles increased to 180 nm after the surface coating with the 41183

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13920 ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017, 9, 41181−41187

Research Article

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Figure 3. (a) Persistent luminescence and (b) decay curves of the SZGOS nanoparticles (15 mg) activated by soft X-rays after calcination at different temperatures.

Figure 4. (a) NIR luminescence images of the SZGOS nanoparticles (15 mg) obtained by a CCD camera at different time points after 60 s irradiation with a soft X-ray source (40 kV tube voltage, 70 μA tube current). (b) Decay curves over five cycles of the SZGOS nanoparticles using soft X-rays as the activation light source.

high-temperature sintering by generating steric constraints against the grain growth. In previous work, mesoporous silica nanoparticles were shown to be effective templates to synthesize PLNPs with good morphology and stability,27 which also confirmed the protect effects of silica shells against agglomeration. Afterward, we investigated the persistent luminescence performance of SZGOS nanoparticles under the different sintering temperature. Notably, both the luminescence intensity and afterglow time of SZGOS nanoparticles significantly improved with the increase of sintering temperature (Figure 3). The luminescence intensity and afterglow time of SZGOS nanoparticles after calcination at 950 °C showed increases of 1050 and 1475%, respectively, compared to those at 600 °C. The intrinsic lattice defects of PLNPs play the key role in the generation of persistent luminescence.3 Higher calcination temperature can generally increase the population of intrinsic lattice defects3 and can therefore improve the persistent luminescence properties of PLNPs. The XRD patterns confirmed that the SZGOS nanoparticles still possess ZnGa2O4:Cr3+ phase without impurity after high-temperature calcination (Figure S4). These results indicated that the SZGOS nanoparticles we designed could effectively solve the tradeoff between morphology and performance of PLNPs. Because the SZGOS nanoparticles after calcination at 950 °C exhibited the best performance, we only investigated this sample in the subsequent experiments. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first demonstration that PLNPs possess a regular morphology and strong luminescence properties after 950 °C calcination. 2.3. Activation of SZGOS Nanoparticles by Soft X-rays. The SZGOS nanoparticles could be activated by ultraviolet or red LEDs, and the resulting persistent luminescence signals were observed for more than 24 h (Figure S5). However, for in vivo

biomedical applications, the ultraviolet or visible light sources are usually limited due to their poor penetration in tissue. Compared to ultraviolet or visible light, soft X-ray light source possesses the advantage of deep tissue penetration. As demonstrated above, after being illuminated with the soft X-rays, the SZGOS nanoparticles generated an emission band in the range of 600− 750 nm with the peak at 696 nm corresponding to the spinforbidden 2E → 4A2 transition,5,28 confirming that the SZGOS nanoparticles were able to be activated by soft X-rays (Figure 3a). Moreover, the afterglow time of SZGOS nanoparticles was more than 24 h. To further evaluate the capability of the SZGOS nanoparticles for X-ray-activated NIR luminescence imaging, we collected the NIR luminescence images at different time points using a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. After 60 s illumination with the soft X-rays, the SZGOS nanoparticles showed persistent luminescence imaging signals for more than 24 h, and these signals could be repeatedly activated (Figure 4a). The decay curves showed that the SZGOS nanoparticles could quickly absorb X-ray energy and reach saturation and then slowly release afterglow in the absence of illumination (Figure 4b). More importantly, over five X-ray activation cycles, the decay curves of SZGOS nanoparticles remained stable without significant changes, indicating that the SZGOS nanoparticles had outstanding photostability under repeated soft X-ray illumination. The in vivo PLNPs imaging was usually limited by the emission lifetime of the PLNPs after an ex vivo activation due to the limited penetration depth of ultraviolet or visible activation sources. The SZGOS nanoparticles can be repeatedly activated by soft X-rays with deep tissue penetration, which means that the SZGOS nanoparticles can be repeatedly activated in situ in deep tissue, and therefore the luminescence imaging might be no longer limited by the afterglow lifetime of the PLNPs. To further 41184

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13920 ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017, 9, 41181−41187

Research Article

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

PLNPs. Due to the protection of the silica templates, the SZGOS nanoparticles still maintained their size and morphology after the sintering. Furthermore, the introduction of the silica shell would be beneficial for the surface modification. We then functionalized the SZGOS nanoparticles with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) to render these nanoparticles water-soluble for biomedical applications.7 Surface modification of the SZGOS nanoparticles with PEG was confirmed by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. In the FTIR spectra, the typical peaks of C−O−C (1094 cm−1), C−H (2847 and 2921 cm−1), and amide bond (1656 cm−1) vibration were observed, indicating the successful PEGylation of SZGOS nanoparticles (Figure 6a). The obtained PEGylated SZGOS nanoparticles could be stably dispersed in various solutions, including water, phosphatebuffered saline, cell culture medium Roswell Park Memorial Institute medium, and fetal bovine serum without aggregation over at least 2 weeks (Figure 6b). A key requirement for bioimaging applications is that the nanomaterials must be biocompatible.29−31 To evaluate the cytotoxicity of SZGOS nanoparticles, we performed the CCK-8 assay. After being incubated with HepG2 cells for 24 h, the SZGOS nanoparticles showed no significant influence on cell viability even at the highest concentration, suggesting the good biocompatibility of SZGOS nanoparticles (Figure 6c). 2.5. In Vivo NIR Luminescence Imaging of SZGOS Nanoparticles. Normally, NIR persistent luminescence requires ultraviolet light to provide the energy. However, owing to the rather limited tissue penetration depth of ultraviolet or visible light, these PLNPs had to be precharged in vitro. Furthermore, living tissues typically exhibit strong autofluorescence under ultraviolet or visible light irradiation (Figure S6), which might also hinder the applications of these light sources in optical bioimaging. Although NIR activation of PLNPs has been developed,32 its penetration is still limited and part of the energy is easily absorbed by tissue and water, causing less energy delivered to PLNPs. To address these problems, we used soft Xrays as irradiation source. The above experiments have demonstrated that the SZGOS nanoparticles could be repeatedly activated in situ. We further performed in vivo NIR luminescence imaging using BALB/c nude mice as models. We first intravenously injected the mice with SZGOS nanoparticles (dose, 200 μL; 1 mg mL−1). After 12 h, the mice were activated by soft X-rays for 60 s. Because the nanomaterials were highly taken up by the hepatic Kupffer cells, leading to their high

confirm the potential use of SZGOS nanoparticles for deeptissue imaging, we conducted a simulation experiment by placing a piece of pork (∼1 cm thickness) between the SZGOS nanoparticles and light source (Figure 5a,b). The persistent

Figure 5. (a) Photograph and (b) X-ray imaging of the experimental setup, that is, a ∼1 cm thick pork covering on the SZGOS nanoparticles. (c) NIR persistent luminescence image of the SZGOS nanoparticles after treated with 430 nm light activation. (d) NIR persistent luminescence images of the SZGOS nanoparticles after the activation of soft X-rays over three times.

luminescence was hardly detected when 430 nm light was used as the activation source (Figure 5c), demonstrating that the 430 nm visible light was difficult to penetrate the pork slab to activate the SZGOS nanoparticles. In contrast, the persistent luminescence signals were clearly observed and lasted for more than 30 min after the irradiation of soft X-rays (Figure 5d). Additionally, these signals could be repeatedly activated, showing no obvious attenuation. These results proved that soft X-rays with strong penetrating abilities were able to be used as a highly effective activation light source for deep-tissue luminescence imaging. 2.4. Functionalization of SZGOS Nanoparticles. Hightemperature sintering can lead to the loss of surface groups of the PLNPs, resulting in agglomeration and poor dispersibility of the

Figure 6. (a) FTIR spectrum of the PEGylated SZGOS nanoparticles. (b) Photographs of the PEGylated SZGOS nanoparticles dispersed in various solutions. (c) Cell viability of HepG2 cells after incubated with PEGylated SZGOS nanoparticles with different concentrations for 24 h. 41185

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13920 ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017, 9, 41181−41187

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ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces accumulation in the liver,33−35 we focused on the liver as the targeting region for assessing the in vivo luminescence imaging effects of SZGOS nanoparticles. The persistent luminescence images showed that the major signals of persistent luminescence were detected in the liver region for more than 2 h, suggesting that the SZGOS nanoparticles could eliminate the tissue autofluorescence (Figure 7). When the mice were irradiated

ORCID

Jingying Li: 0000-0003-3600-433X Guoming Huang: 0000-0002-8075-5205 Huang-Hao Yang: 0000-0001-5894-0909 Notes

The authors declare no competing financial interest.



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1505221, 21635002, and 81501461), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (No. 2015H6011), the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (No. IRT15R11), and the Independent Research Project of State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment (No. 2014B02).



(1) Wang, J.; Ma, Q.; Wang, Y.; Shen, H.; Yuan, Q. Recent Progress in Biomedical Applications of Persistent Luminescence Nanoparticles. Nanoscale 2017, 9, 6204−6218. (2) le Masne de Chermont, Q.; Chaneac, C.; Seguin, J.; Pelle, F.; Maitrejean, S.; Jolivet, J. P.; Gourier, D.; Bessodes, M.; Scherman, D. Nanoprobes with Near-infrared Persistent Luminescence for in Vivo Imaging. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2007, 104, 9266−9271. (3) Li, Y.; Gecevicius, M.; Qiu, J. Long Persistent Phosphors–from Fundamentals to Applications. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2016, 45, 2090−2136. (4) Lécuyer, T.; Teston, E.; Ramirez-Garcia, G.; Maldiney, T.; Viana, B.; Seguin, J.; Mignet, N.; Scherman, D.; Richard, C. Chemically Engineered Persistent Luminescence Nanoprobes for Bioimaging. Theranostics 2016, 6, 2488−2524. (5) Pan, Z.; Lu, Y. Y.; Liu, F. Sunlight-Activated Long-Persistent Luminescence in the Near-Infrared from Cr3+-Doped Zinc Gallogermanates. Nat. Mater. 2011, 11, 58−63. (6) Bessière, A.; Sharma, S. K.; Basavaraju, N.; Priolkar, K. R.; Binet, L.; Viana, B.; Bos, A. J. J.; Maldiney, T.; Richard, C.; Scherman, D.; Gourier, D. Storage of Visible Light for Long-Lasting Phosphorescence in Chromium-Doped Zinc Gallate. Chem. Mater. 2014, 26, 1365−1373. (7) Maldiney, T.; Bessiere, A.; Seguin, J.; Teston, E.; Sharma, S. K.; Viana, B.; Bos, A. J.; Dorenbos, P.; Bessodes, M.; Gourier, D.; Scherman, D.; Richard, C. The in Vivo Activation of Persistent Nanophosphors for Optical Imaging of Vascularization, Tumours and Grafted Cells. Nat. Mater. 2014, 13, 418−426. (8) Viana, B.; Sharma, S. K.; Gourier, D.; Maldiney, T.; Teston, E.; Scherman, D.; Richard, C. Long Term in Vivo Imaging with Cr3+ Doped Spinel Nanoparticles Exhibiting Persistent Luminescence. J. Lumin. 2016, 170, 879−887. (9) Maldiney, T.; Doan, B.-T.; Alloyeau, D.; Bessodes, M.; Scherman, D.; Richard, C. Gadolinium-Doped Persistent Nanophosphors as Versatile Tool for Multimodal in Vivo Imaging. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2015, 25, 331−338. (10) Carlson, S.; Hölsä, J.; Laamanen, T.; Lastusaari, M.; Malkamäki, M.; Niittykoski, J.; Valtonen, R. X-ray Absorption Study of Rare Earth Ions in Sr2MgSi2O7:Eu2+,R3+ Persistent Luminescence Materials. Opt. Mater. 2009, 31, 1877−1879. (11) Ma, L.; Zou, X.; Bui, B.; Chen, W.; Song, K. H.; Solberg, T. X-ray Excited ZnS:Cu,Co Afterglow Nanoparticles for Photodynamic Activation. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2014, 105, No. 013702. (12) Maldiney, T.; Lecointre, A.; Viana, B.; Bessiere, A.; Bessodes, M.; Gourier, D.; Richard, C.; Scherman, D. Controlling Electron Trap Depth to Enhance Optical Properties of Persistent Luminescence Nanoparticles for in Vivo Imaging. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 11810− 11815. (13) Song, L.; Lin, X. H.; Song, X. R.; Chen, S.; Chen, X. F.; Li, J.; Yang, H. H. Repeatable Deep-Tissue Activation of Persistent Luminescent Nanoparticles by Soft X-ray for High Sensitivity Long-Term in Vivo Bioimaging. Nanoscale 2017, 9, 2718−2722.

Figure 7. Persistent luminescence images of mice after intravenous injection of SZGOS nanoparticles (200 μL, 1 mg mL−1) and soft X-ray activation (40 kV, 70 μA, 60 s).

again by soft X-rays, the persistent luminescence signals were reactivated sufficiently, confirming that the SZGOS nanoparticles could be repeatedly activated in situ for long-term in vivo imaging. It is worth noting that the dose of X-rays we used was only 0.18 Gy, which is much lower than the fraction doses used in clinical radiotherapy.36,37

3. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, we have successfully synthesized the kiwifruit-like SZGOS nanoparticles using a silica template-assisted method. The SZGOS nanoparticles showed excellent thermal stability that maintained their uniform morphology without agglomeration under high-temperature sintering. Moreover, the SZGOS nanoparticles possessed outstanding persistent luminescence performance after calcination at 950 °C. They emitted NIR persistent luminescence in the tissue-transparency window and were able to be repeatedly activated by soft X-rays in situ, providing highly sensitive optical detection without autofluorescence signal from living tissues. We believe that this study not only developed an optical probe for long-term in vivo bioimaging, but also provided a novel synthesis strategy for fabricating PLNPs with high optical performance, controllable size, defined morphology, and good biocompatibility.



ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information *

The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13920. Experimental details, supporting figures (PDF)



REFERENCES

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Authors

*E-mail: [email protected] (G.H.). *E-mail: [email protected] (H.-H.Y.). 41186

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13920 ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017, 9, 41181−41187

Research Article

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DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13920 ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017, 9, 41181−41187