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Recent progress in engineering near-infrared persistent luminescence nanoprobes for time-resolved biosensing/bioimaging

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Abstract

Persistent luminescence nanoprobes (PLNPs) can remain luminescent after ceasing excitation. Due to the ultra-long decay time of persistent luminescence (PersL), autofluorescence interference can be efficiently eliminated by collecting PersL signal after autofluorescence decays completely, thus the imaging contrast and sensing sensitivity can be significantly improved. Since near-infrared (NIR) light shows reduced scattering and absorption coefficient in penetrating biological organs or tissues, near-infrared persistent luminescence nanoprobes (NIR PLNPs) possess deep tissue penetration and offer a bright prospect in the areas of in vivo biosensing/bioimaging. In this review, we firstly summarize the design of different types of NIR PLNPs for biosensing/bioimaging, such as transition metal ions-doped NIR PLNPs, lanthanide ions-doped NIR PLNPs, organic molecules-based NIR PLNPs, and semiconducting polymer self-assembled NIR PLNPs. Notably, organic molecules-based NIR PLNPs and semiconductor self-assembled NIR PLNPs, for the first time, were introduced to the review of PLNPs. Secondly, the effects of different types of charge carriers on NIR PersL and luminescence decay of NIR PLNPs are significantly emphasized so as to build up an in-depth understanding of their luminescence mechanism. It includes the regulation of valence band and conduction band of different host materials, alteration of defect types, depth and concentration changes caused by ion doping, effective radiation transitions and energy transfer generated by different luminescence centers. Given the design and potential of NIR PLNPs as long-lived luminescent materials, the current challenges and future perspective in this rapidly growing field are also discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21675120), the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2017YFA0208000, 2016YFF0100800), Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of NSFC (No. 21521063), and National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2015CB932600).

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  1. Ling Liang and Na Chen contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Science and Biomedicine Laboratory, Institute of Chemical Biology and Nanomedicine, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Ling Liang, Na Chen, Yiyi Jia, Quan Yuan & Weihong Tan

  2. Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Qinqin Ma, Jie Wang & Quan Yuan

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  1. Ling Liang
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Correspondence to Quan Yuan.

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Liang, L., Chen, N., Jia, Y. et al. Recent progress in engineering near-infrared persistent luminescence nanoprobes for time-resolved biosensing/bioimaging. Nano Res. 12, 1279–1292 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2343-6

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