Dual-Functional Nonmetallic Plasmonic Hybrids with Three-Order Enhanced Upconversion Emission and Photothermal Bio-Therapy

Plasmonic semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) with wide-range tailorable localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) hold exciting prospects on optical signal amplification. In this work, by precisely controlling oxygen vacancies around W atoms, plasmonic bismuth tungstate Bi2WO6 (BWO) nanosheets are constructed to enhance emission of Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped NaYF4 upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs). In the optimal conditions, the UCNPs/BWO-2 hybrids exhibit over three-order (1260-fold) enhancement selectively on the 520 nm emission owing to the strong LSPR-induced electrical field and photothermal effect. Moreover, it is found that the highly efficient emission of UCNPs/BWO-2 allows it to act as a thermometer to monitor the real-time local temperature with high absolute sensitivity of 5.8 x 10(-3) K-1 in wide temperature range (up to 990 K). For proof-of-concept, the dual functions of plasmonic UCNPs/BWO-2 hybrids on bioimaging and photothermal therapy for cancer cells are demonstrated that can be completely killed within 5 min under 980 nm irradiation. As far as it is known, this work reaches a new level on UCNPs emission enhancement by plasmonic semiconductor, exceeding most plasmonic metals.

Automated summary

In this work, plasmonic bismuth tungstate nanosheets were constructed to enhance the emission of upconversion nanoparticles. The hybrids showed significant enhancement in emission and acted as a high-sensitivity thermometer for monitoring local temperature. Furthermore, the plasmonic hybrids demonstrated potential applications in cancer photothermal therapy and bioimaging.