AUTHOR=Cui Xiaoxia , Xu Yantao , She Shengfei , Xiao Xusheng , Hou Chaoqi , Guo Haitao 

TITLE=Ligand-Free BaF2: Nd Nanoparticles With Low Cytotoxicity, High Stability and Enhanced Fluorescence Intensity as NIR-II Imaging Probes

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physics

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2021.665956

DOI=10.3389/fphy.2021.665956

ISSN=2296-424X

ABSTRACT=<p>Ligand-free BaF<sub>2</sub>:Nd nanoparticles (NPs) with a size of 10 nm were fabricated by a novel synthetic route in the liquid phase. A transparent dispersion of the BaF<sub>2</sub>:Nd NPs mixed with propanetriol and DMSO-d6 was done. Highly stable and outstanding near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence centered at 1,058 nm was detected using an excitation wavelength of 808 nm laser. Moreover, the dispersion can be found to be stable for over 1 month, and the cytotoxicity of the BaF<sub>2</sub>:Nd NP dispersion has also been studied by 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The superior performance of these NPs exhibits their great potential application in high-contrast and high-penetration <italic>in vivo</italic> imaging.</p>