One-Pot Syntheses and Cell Imaging Applications of Poly(amino acid) Coated LaVO4:Eu3+ Luminescent Nanocrystals

For successful biological applications of luminescent nanocrystals, surface functionalization is very essential. It is very important to develop the facile synthetic methods to gain access to obtaining water-stable and biocompatible NPs with appropriate functional groups as well as high luminescence efficiency. Herein, a green and facile one-pot hydrothermal strategy was developed for the preparation of poly(amino acid) coated LaVO4:Eu3+–PASP luminescent nanocrystals by employing the hydrolysis of polysuccinimide (PSI) to polyaspartic acid (PASP) to provide a general platform for the surface modification. Because of the enriched carboxylic groups in the PASP coating, these as-prepared nanoparticles (NPs) demonstrated good water-stability, biocompatibility, and bioconjugatability. Due to their strong red luminescence and good bioconjugatability, the antibody bioconjugated LaVO4:Eu3+–PASP NPs were successfully used as the biomarkers for cancer cell specific luminescence imaging. The results indicate that these NPs have the potential to act as luminescent probes for luminescence assay and in vitro imaging.