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Hydrophilic Ultralong Organic Nanophosphors
Author(s) -
You Yongqiang,
Huang Kaiwei,
Liu Xiaojia,
Pan Xi,
Zhi Jiahuan,
He Qianjun,
Shi Huifang,
An Zhongfu,
Ma Xing,
Huang Wei
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201906733
Subject(s) - phosphorescence , phosphor , materials science , luminescence , nanotechnology , fluorescence , biocompatibility , aqueous solution , biological imaging , afterglow , nanoparticle , phosphorescent organic light emitting diode , persistent luminescence , oled , optoelectronics , chemistry , organic chemistry , layer (electronics) , optics , gamma ray burst , astronomy , metallurgy , physics , thermoluminescence
Ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP), enabling of persistent luminescence after removal of external excitation light, shows great promise in biological applications such as bioimaging in virtue of antibackground fluorescence interference. Despite of good biocompatibility and outstanding phosphorescent properties, most current organic phosphors are hydrophobic with poor water solubility in the form of bulk crystal with large size, limiting their potential in the biological field. Here, a facile and versatile approach is provided to obtain nanoscale hydrophilic phosphorescent phosphors (HPPs) by physically loading ultralong organic phosphors into hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles. The as‐prepared HPPs can be well suspended in aqueous solution and effectively internalized by HeLa cells with very low cytotoxicity. Such HPPs are successfully applied for afterglow bioimaging in living nude mice with a very high signal‐to‐noise ratio up to 31. The current study not only provides a universal strategy to realize UOP in aqueous media but also demonstrates their great potential for biomedical purposes as an advanced imaging indicator with long‐lived emission lifetime.