Interplay between Static and Dynamic Energy Transfer in Biofunctional Upconversion Nanoplatforms

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry letters Vol. 6; no. 13; pp. 2518 - 2523
• Main Authors: Ding, Yadan, Wu, Fei, Zhang, Youlin, Liu, Xiaomin, de Jong, Elinore M. L. D, Gregorkiewicz, Tom, Hong, Xia, Liu, Yichun, Aalders, Maurice C. G, Buma, Wybren Jan, Zhang, Hong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 02.07.2015
• Subjects: Energy Transfer - physiology; Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry; Molecular Dynamics Simulation; optimal shell thickness; reabsorption; Er3+/NaYF4; Förster resonant energy transfer; NaYF4:Yb3; upconversion; quantitative analysis; inner filter effect
• ISSN: 1948-7185; 1948-7185
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b00999

Clarification of the energy-transfer (ET) mechanism is of vital importance for constructing efficient upconversion nanoplatforms for biological/biomedical applications. Yet, most strategies of optimizing these nanoplatforms were casually based on a dynamic ET assumption. In this work, we have modeled quantitatively the shell-thickness-dependent interplay between dynamic and static ET in nanosystems and validated the model in a typical biofunctional upconversion nanoplatform composed of NaYF4:Er, Yb/NaYF4 upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), and energy-acceptor photosensitizing molecule Rose Bengal (RB). It was determined that with a proper thickness shell, the energy transferred via dynamic ET as well as static ET in this case could be significantly improved by ∼4 and ∼9 fold, respectively, compared with the total energy transferred from bare core UCNPs. Our results shall form the bedrock in designing highly efficient ET-based biofunctional nanoplatforms.