Watching lanthanide nanoparticles one at a time

Our recent work, “Watching lanthanide nanoparticles one at a time: characterization of their photoluminescence dynamics at the single nanoparticle level,” has been accepted for publication in Nanoscale.  

Lanthanide nanoparticles (LnNPs) are gaining attention for their potential in biosensing and bioimaging, but until now, their photoluminescence behavior at the single nanoparticle level remained poorly understood. In this study, we go beyond traditional ensemble measurements by using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and photoluminescence burst analysis to explore the emission dynamics of Sm and Eu-based LnNPs with single-particle sensitivity and microsecond resolution. Our results reveal key insights into the brightness, emission stability, and the number of emitting centers within individual nanoparticles.

Most importantly, we demonstrate the ability to detect and analyze single LnNPs—an exciting step forward for high-precision sensing and imaging applications. This work helps bridge the gap between ensemble-averaged spectroscopy and single-molecule techniques, opening new possibilities for the use of LnNPs in next-generation bioanalytical tools.

Read the preprint on ArXiv 2412.07443