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Article Cite This: ACS Omega 2018, 3, 188−197
Multifunctional Lanthanide-Doped Core/Shell Nanoparticles: Integration of Upconversion Luminescence, Temperature Sensing, and Photothermal Conversion Properties Qiyue Shao,* Zhaochun Yang, Gongtuo Zhang, Yanqing Hu, Yan Dong, and Jianqing Jiang School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, P. R. China S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Multifunctional integration on single upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), such as the simultaneous achievement of imaging, sensing, and therapy, will be extremely attractive in various application fields. Herein, we demonstrated that single core/shell NaGdF4:Yb/Er-based UCNPs (20 nm) that were not optimal for biological applications. UCNPs with smaller sizes and promising luminescence/sensing/heating properties will be highly desired in the biomedical field for the target of fast body clearance of nanoparticles and minimized interference with cellular systems.33 Although the integration of simultaneous heating and temperature sensing also can be achieved by coupling lanthanide-doped nanoparticles (as thermal sensors) with metal, magnetic, or carbon nanostructures (as heating units), these nanocomposites normally suffer from complicated nanostructures, tedious synthesis procedures, and larger sizes.9,10,34 The simultaneous achievement of UCL, thermal sensing, and heating features on single small-sized UCNPs (
