Yb3+/Er3+-Codoped Bi2O3 Nanospheres: Probe for Upconversion Luminescence Imaging and Binary Contrast Agent for Computed Tomography Imaging

In this work, water-soluble Yb3+/Er3+ codoped Bi2O3 upconversion (UC) nanospheres with uniform morphology have been successfully synthesized via a solid-state-chemistry thermal decomposition process. With 980 nm near-infrared irradiation, the Bi2O3:Yb3+/Er3+ nanospheres have bright UC luminescence (UCL). Moreover, multicolor UC emissions (from green to red) can be tuned by simply changing the Yb3+ ions doping concentration. After citric acid molecules were grafted on the surface of Bi2O3:20% Yb3+/2% Er3+ nanospheres, the MTT assay on HeLa cells and CCK-8 assay on osteoblasts show that the UC nanospheres exhibit excellent stability and biocompatibility. The possibility of using these nanoprobes with red UCL for optical imaging in vivo has been demonstrated. Furthermore, Bi3+ and Yb3+ containing nanospheres as binary contrast agent also exhibited significant enhancement of contrast efficacy than iodine-based contrast agent via X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging at different voltage setting (80–140 kVp), indicating they have potential as CT imaging contrast agent. Thus, Yb3+/Er3+ codoped Bi2O3 nanospheres could be used as dual modality probe for optical and CT imagings.