Dopant-controlled synthesis of water-soluble hexagonal NaYF4 nanorods with efficient upconversion fluorescence for multicolor bioimaging

• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-010-1008-2
• Publication Date: 2010-01-17T21:39:52Z
• Authors: Xuefeng Yu; Min Li; Mengyin Xie; Liangdong Chen; Yan Li; Ququan Wang
• Keywords: Nanorod; Photon Upconversion; Ionic radius

A novel strategy is proposed to directly synthesize water-soluble hexagonal NaYF4 nanorods by doping rare-earth ions with large ionic radius (such as La3+, Ce3+, Pr3+, Nd3+, Sm3+, Eu3+, and Gd3+), the dopantcontrolled growth mechanism studied. Based on effect, we fabricated NaYF4:(Yb,Er)/La NaYF4:(Yb,Er)/Ce nanorods, which exhibited much brighter upconversion fluorescence than corresponding cubic forms. The sizes of can be adjusted over a broad range changing dopant concentration reaction time. Furthermore, successfully demonstrated depth-sensitive multicolor bioimaging for in vivo use employing as-synthesized probes.