Recent progress in nanomaterial-enhanced fluorescence polarization/anisotropy sensors

As a promising signaling transduction approach, fluorescence polarization(FP)/fluorescence anisotropy(FA), provides a powerful quantitative tool for the rotational motion of fluorescently labeled molecules in chemical or biological homogeneous systems. Unlike fluorescence intensity, FP/FA is almost independent the concentration or quantum of fluorophores, but they are highly dependent on the size or molecular weight of the molecules or materials attached to fluorophores. Recently, significant progress in FP/FA was made, due to the introduction of some nanomaterials as FP/FA enhancers. The detection sensitivity is thus greatly improved by using nanomaterials as FP/FA enhancers, and nanomaterial-based FP/FA is currently used successfully in immunoassay, and analysis of protein, nucleic acid, small molecule and metal ion.Nanomaterial-based FP/FA provides a new kind of strategy to design fluorescent sensors and establishes innovative analytical methods. In this review, we summarize the scientific publications in the field of FP/FA sensor in recent five years, and first introduce the recent progress of FP/FA sensor based on nanomaterial. Subsequently, the various analytical applications of FP/FA based on nanomaterial are discussed. Finally, we provide perspectives on the current challenges and future prospects in this promising field.

Polarized upconversion luminescence from a single LiLuF_(4):Yb^(3+)/Er^(3+) microcrystal for orientation tracking

Polarized upconversion luminescence(UCL)of lanthanide-doped micro/nano-crystals has shown great promise in single-particle tracking and super-resolution bioimaging.However,because of the spectral line broadening and multiple sites of lanthanide in upconversion particles(UCPs),the crystal-field(CF)polarization components of UCL are usually undistinguishable.Herein,we report the linearly polarized UCL in LiLuF_(4):Yb^(3+)/Er^(3+) single microcrystals with resolvable CF transition lines and a polarization degree up to 0.82.The CF levels and CF transition lines of Er^(3+),as well as their emission polarization anisotropy,are unraveled for the first time through low-temperature and high-resolution photoluminescence(PL)and UCL spectroscopies.By taking advantage of the well-resolved and highly-polarized CF transition lines of Er^(3+),we demonstrate the application of LiLuF_(4):Yb^(3+)/Er^(3+) single microcrystals as anisotropic UCL probes for orientation tracking.These findings provide fundamental insights into the polarization anisotropy of UCL in lanthanide-doped single particles,thus laying a foundation for the future design of anisotropic luminescent probes towards versatile applications.