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Research related to the development and application of luminescent nanoparticles (LNPs) for chemical and biological analysis and imaging is flourishing. Novel materials and new applications continue to be reported after two decades of research. This review provides a comprehensive and heuristic overview of this field. It is targeted to both newcomers and experts who are interested in a critical assessment of LNP materials, their properties, strengths and weaknesses, and prospective applications. Numerous LNP materials are cataloged by fundamental descriptions of their chemical identities and physical morphology, quantitative photoluminescence (PL) properties, PL mechanisms, and surface chemistry. These materials include various semiconductor quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, graphene derivatives, carbon dots, nanodiamonds, luminescent metal nanoclusters, lanthanidedoped upconversion nanoparticles and downshifting nanoparticles, triplet−triplet annihilation nanoparticles, persistent-luminescence nanoparticles, conjugated polymer nanoparticles and semiconducting polymer dots, multi-nanoparticle assemblies, and doped and labeled nanoparticles, including but not limited to those based on polymers and silica. As an exercise in the critical assessment of LNP properties, these materials are ranked by several application-related functional criteria. Additional sections highlight recent examples of advances in chemical and biological analysis, point-of-care diagnostics, and cellular, tissue, and in vivo imaging and theranostics. These examples are drawn from the recent literature and organized by both LNP material and the particular properties that are leveraged to an advantage. Finally, a perspective on what comes next for the field is offered.

We report that high-quality single-layer graphene (SLG) has been successfully synthesized directly on various dielectric substrates including amorphous SiO2/Si by a Cu-vapor-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The Cu vapors produced by the sublimation of Cu foil that is suspended above target substrates without physical contact catalyze the pyrolysis of methane gas and assist nucleation of graphene on the substrates. Raman spectra and mapping images reveal that the graphene formed on a SiO2/Si substrate is almost defect-free and homogeneous single layer. The overall quality of graphene grown by Cu-vapor-assisted CVD is comparable to that of the graphene grown by regular metal-catalyzed CVD on a Cu foil. While Cu vapor induces the nucleation and growth of SLG on an amorphous substrate, the resulting SLG is confirmed to be Cu-free by synchrotron X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The SLG grown by Cu-vapor-assisted CVD is fabricated into field effect transistor devices without transfer steps that are generally required when SLG is grown by regular CVD process on metal catalyst substrates. This method has overcome two important hurdles previously present when the catalyst-free CVD process is used for the growth of SLG on fused quartz and hexagonal boron nitride substrates, that is, high degree of structural defects and limited size of resulting graphene, respectively.

Direct growth of a single to a few layers of graphene on a germanium nanowire (Gr/Ge NW; see picture) was achieved by a metal-catalyst-free chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The Gr/Ge NW was used as anode in a lithium ion battery. This material has a specific capacity of 1059 mA h g(-1) at 4.0 C, a long cycle life over 200 cycles, and a high capacity retention of 90%.

Direct growth of a single to a few layers of graphene on a germanium nanowire (Gr/Ge NW; see picture) was achieved by a metal‐catalyst‐free chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The Gr/Ge NW was used as anode in a lithium ion battery. This material has a specific capacity of 1059 mA h g−1 at 4.0 C, a long cycle life over 200 cycles, and a high capacity retention of 90 %.