Anti-stokes luminescent organic nanoparticles for frequency upconversion biomedical imaging

Frequency upconversion optical imaging has attracted great attention due to its remarkable advantages over traditional down-conversion optical imaging. However, the development of frequency upconversion optical imaging is extremely limited. Herein, five derivatives with BODIPY structure (B1–B5) were developed to investigate its frequency upconversion luminescence (FUCL) performance by introducing electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups. Except for the nitro group decorated derivative, the other derivatives have strong and stable FUCL around 520 nm under 635 nm light excitation. More importantly, B5 retains FUCL ability after self-assembly. When applied to FUCL imaging of cells, B5 nanoparticles can be enriched in the cytoplasm and show a good signal-to-noise ratio. Meanwhile, FUCL tumor imaging can be achieved after 1 h of injection. This study not only provides a potential agent for FUCL biomedical imaging but also develops a new strategy for designing FUCL agents that exhibit excellent performance.