Light-Emitting Diode Excitation for Upconversion Microscopy: A Quantitative Assessment

Yueying Cao; Xianlin Zheng; Simone De Camillis; Bingyang Shi; James A. Piper; Nicolle H. Packer; Yiqing Lu

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02697

Light-Emitting Diode Excitation for Upconversion Microscopy: A Quantitative Assessment

Yueying Cao, Xianlin Zheng, Simone De Camillis, Bingyang Shi, James A. Piper, Nicolle H. Packer, Yiqing Lu^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Lanthanide-based upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) generally require high power laser excitation. Here, we report wide-field upconversion microscopy at single-nanoparticle sensitivity using incoherent excitation of a 970 nm light-emitting diode (LED). We show that due to its broad emission spectrum, LED excitation is about 3 times less effective for UCNPs and generates high background compared to laser illumination. To counter this, we use time-gated luminescence detection to eliminate the residual background from the LED source, so that individual UCNPs with high sensitizer (Yb³⁺) doping and inert shell protection become clearly identified under LED excitation at 1.18 W cm^-2, as confirmed by correlated electron microscopy images. Hydrophilic UCNPs are obtained by polysaccharide coating via a facile ligand exchange protocol to demonstrate imaging of cellular uptake using LED excitation. These results suggest a viable approach to bypassing the limitations associated with high-power lasers when applying UCNPs and upconversion microscopy to life science research.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	8487-8492
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nano Letters
Volume	20
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02697
Publication status	Published - 9 Dec 2020
Externally published	Yes

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title = "Light-Emitting Diode Excitation for Upconversion Microscopy: A Quantitative Assessment",

abstract = "Lanthanide-based upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) generally require high power laser excitation. Here, we report wide-field upconversion microscopy at single-nanoparticle sensitivity using incoherent excitation of a 970 nm light-emitting diode (LED). We show that due to its broad emission spectrum, LED excitation is about 3 times less effective for UCNPs and generates high background compared to laser illumination. To counter this, we use time-gated luminescence detection to eliminate the residual background from the LED source, so that individual UCNPs with high sensitizer (Yb3+) doping and inert shell protection become clearly identified under LED excitation at 1.18 W cm-2, as confirmed by correlated electron microscopy images. Hydrophilic UCNPs are obtained by polysaccharide coating via a facile ligand exchange protocol to demonstrate imaging of cellular uptake using LED excitation. These results suggest a viable approach to bypassing the limitations associated with high-power lasers when applying UCNPs and upconversion microscopy to life science research.",

keywords = "hydrophilic functionalization, light-emitting diode, single-nanoparticle detection, time-gated luminescence, upconversion nanoparticle",

author = "Yueying Cao and Xianlin Zheng and {De Camillis}, Simone and Bingyang Shi and Piper, {James A.} and Packer, {Nicolle H.} and Yiqing Lu",

year = "2020",

month = dec,

day = "9",

doi = "10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02697",

language = "English",

volume = "20",

pages = "8487--8492",

journal = "Nano Letters",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Light-Emitting Diode Excitation for Upconversion Microscopy

T2 - A Quantitative Assessment

AU - Cao, Yueying

AU - Zheng, Xianlin

AU - De Camillis, Simone

AU - Shi, Bingyang

AU - Piper, James A.

AU - Packer, Nicolle H.

AU - Lu, Yiqing

PY - 2020/12/9

Y1 - 2020/12/9

N2 - Lanthanide-based upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) generally require high power laser excitation. Here, we report wide-field upconversion microscopy at single-nanoparticle sensitivity using incoherent excitation of a 970 nm light-emitting diode (LED). We show that due to its broad emission spectrum, LED excitation is about 3 times less effective for UCNPs and generates high background compared to laser illumination. To counter this, we use time-gated luminescence detection to eliminate the residual background from the LED source, so that individual UCNPs with high sensitizer (Yb3+) doping and inert shell protection become clearly identified under LED excitation at 1.18 W cm-2, as confirmed by correlated electron microscopy images. Hydrophilic UCNPs are obtained by polysaccharide coating via a facile ligand exchange protocol to demonstrate imaging of cellular uptake using LED excitation. These results suggest a viable approach to bypassing the limitations associated with high-power lasers when applying UCNPs and upconversion microscopy to life science research.

AB - Lanthanide-based upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) generally require high power laser excitation. Here, we report wide-field upconversion microscopy at single-nanoparticle sensitivity using incoherent excitation of a 970 nm light-emitting diode (LED). We show that due to its broad emission spectrum, LED excitation is about 3 times less effective for UCNPs and generates high background compared to laser illumination. To counter this, we use time-gated luminescence detection to eliminate the residual background from the LED source, so that individual UCNPs with high sensitizer (Yb3+) doping and inert shell protection become clearly identified under LED excitation at 1.18 W cm-2, as confirmed by correlated electron microscopy images. Hydrophilic UCNPs are obtained by polysaccharide coating via a facile ligand exchange protocol to demonstrate imaging of cellular uptake using LED excitation. These results suggest a viable approach to bypassing the limitations associated with high-power lasers when applying UCNPs and upconversion microscopy to life science research.

KW - hydrophilic functionalization

KW - light-emitting diode

KW - single-nanoparticle detection

KW - time-gated luminescence

KW - upconversion nanoparticle

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U2 - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02697

DO - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02697

M3 - Article

SN - 1530-6984

VL - 20

SP - 8487

EP - 8492

JO - Nano Letters

JF - Nano Letters

IS - 12

ER -

Light-Emitting Diode Excitation for Upconversion Microscopy: A Quantitative Assessment

Abstract

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