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Poly(Acrylic Acid) Modification of Nd 3+ ‐Sensitized Upconversion Nanophosphors for Highly Efficient UCL Imaging and pH‐Responsive Drug Delivery
Author(s) -
Liu Bei,
Chen Yinyin,
Li Chunxia,
He Fei,
Hou Zhiyao,
Huang Shanshan,
Zhu Haomiao,
Chen Xueyuan,
Lin Jun
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201501582
Subject(s) - materials science , photon upconversion , nanocarriers , nanocomposite , nanoparticle , acrylic acid , nanotechnology , coating , in vivo , drug delivery , luminescence , chemical engineering , nuclear chemistry , optoelectronics , composite material , copolymer , polymer , chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , engineering , biology
In this work, a simple method is demonstrated for the synthesis of multifunctional core–shell nanoparticles NaYF 4 :Yb,Er@NaYF 4 :Yb@NaNdF 4 :Yb@NaYF 4 :Yb@PAA (labeled as Er@Y@Nd@Y@PAA or UCNP@PAA), which contain a highly effective 808‐nm‐to‐visible UCNP core and a thin shell of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) to achieve upconversion bioimaging and pH‐sensitive anticancer chemotherapy simultaneously. The core–shell Nd 3+ ‐sensitized UCNPs are optimized by varying the shell number, core size, and host lattices. The final optimized Er@Y@Nd@Y nanoparticle composition shows a significantly improved upconversion luminescence intensity, that is, 12.8 times higher than Er@Y@Nd nanoparticles. After coating the nanocomposites with a thin layer of PAA, the resulting UCNP@PAA nanocomposite perform well as a pH‐responsive nanocarrier and show clear advantages over UCNP@mSiO 2 , which are evidenced by in vitro/in vivo experiments. Histological analysis also reveals that no pathological changes or inflammatory responses occur in the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and spleen. In summary, this study presents a major step forward towards a new therapeutic and diagnostic treatment of tumors by using 808‐nm excited UCNPs to replace the traditional 980‐nm excitation.