The
outstanding optical properties and multiphoton absorption of
lead halide perovskites make them promising for use as fluorescence
tags in bioimaging applications. However, their poor stability in
aqueous media and biological fluids significantly limits their further
use for in vitro and in vivo applications.
In this work, we have developed a universal approach for the encapsulation
of lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) (CsPbBr3 and
CsPbI3) as water-resistant fluorescent markers, which are
suitable for fluorescence bioimaging. The obtained encapsulated PNCs
demonstrate bright green emission at 510 nm (CsPbBr3) and
red emission at 688 nm (CsPbI3) under one- and two-photon
excitation, and they possess an enhanced stability in water and biological
fluids (PBS, human serum) for a prolonged period of time (1 week).
Further in vitro and in vivo experiments
revealed enhanced stability of PNCs even after their introduction
directly into the biological microenvironment (CT26 cells and DBA
mice). The developed approach allows making a step toward stable,
low-cost, and highly efficient bioimaging platforms that are spectrally
tunable and have narrow emission.
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