title: Ultralow-power near-infrared excited neodymium-doped nanoparticles for long-term in vivo bioimaging.
abstract: Lanthanide-doped luminescent nanoparticles with both emission and excitation in the near-infrared (NIR-to-NIR) region hold great promise for bioimaging. Herein, core@shell structured LiLuF4:Nd@LiLuF4(named as Nd@Lu) nanoparticles (NPs) with highly efficient NIR emission were developed for high-performance in vivo bioimaging. Strikingly, the absolute quantum yield of Nd@Lu NPs reached as high as 32%. After coating with polyethylene glycol (PEG), the water-dispersible Nd@Lu NPs showed good bio-compatibility and low toxicity. With efficient NIR emission, the Nd@Lu NPs were clearly detectable in tissues at depths of up to 20 mm. In addition, long-term in vivo biodistribution with a high signal-to-noise ratio of 25.1 was distinctly tracked upon an ultralow-power-density excitation (10 mW cm-2) of 732 nm for the first time.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. sun@pku.edu.cn lilm@pku.edu.cn yan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qing-Song
authors.initials: QS
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. sun@pku.edu.cn lilm@pku.edu.cn yan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Pei-Zhi
authors.initials: PZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. sun@pku.edu.cn lilm@pku.edu.cn yan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ling-Dong
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. sun@pku.edu.cn lilm@pku.edu.cn yan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. sun@pku.edu.cn lilm@pku.edu.cn yan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Nai-Xiu
authors.initials: NX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. sun@pku.edu.cn lilm@pku.edu.cn yan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. sun@pku.edu.cn lilm@pku.edu.cn yan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiao-Yu
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. sun@pku.edu.cn lilm@pku.edu.cn yan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Le-Min
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. sun@pku.edu.cn lilm@pku.edu.cn yan@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chun-Hua
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0581-2951
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049449:Luminescence; D008819:Mice, Nude; D053758:Nanoparticles; D009354:Neodymium; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D009354:Neodymium