Self-Assembly of Upconversion Nanoparticles Based Materials and Their Emerging Applications

Abstract

In the past few decades, significant progress of the conventional upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) based nanoplatform has been achieved in many fields, and with the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology, more and more complex situations need a UCNPs based nanoplatform having multifunctions for specific multimodal or multiplexed applications. Through self-assembly, different UCNPs or UCNPs with other materials could be combined together within an entity. It is more like an ideal UCNPs nanoplatform, a unique system with the properties defined by its individual components as well as by the morphology of the composite. Various designs can show their different desired properties depending on the application situation. This review provides a complete summary on the optimization of the synthesis method for the recently designed UCNPs assemblies and summarizes various applications, including dual-modality cell imaging, molecular delivery, detection, and programmed control therapy. The challenges and limitations the UCNPs assembly faces and the potential solutions in this field are also presented.

Keywords: detection; imaging; molecular delivery; programmed control; self-assembly; upconversion.