Hybrid lanthanide nanoparticles with paramagnetic shell coated on upconversion fluorescent nanocrystals.

Nanoparticles comprising of fluorescent probes and MRI contrast agents are highly desirable for biomedical applications due to their ability to be detected at different modes, optically and magnetically. However, most fluorescent probes in such nanoparticles synthesized so far are down-conversion phosphors such as organic dyes and quantum dots, which are known to display many intrinsic limitations. Here, we report a core-shell hybrid lanthanide nanoparticle consisting of an upconverting lanthanide nanocrystal core and a paramagnetic lanthanide complex shell. These nanoparticles are uniform in size, stable in water, and show both high MR relaxivities and upconversion fluorescence, which may have the potential to serve as a versatile imaging tool for smart detection or diagnosis in future biomedical engineering.