Advances in engineering near-infrared luminescent materials

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) luminescent materials have emerged as a growing field of interest, particularly for imaging and optics applications in biology, chemistry, and physics. However, the development of materials for this and other use cases has been hindered by a range of issues that prevents their widespread use beyond benchtop research. This review explores emerging trends in some of the most promising NIR materials and their applications. In particular, we focus on how a more comprehensive understanding of intrinsic NIR material properties might allow researchers to better leverage these traits for innovative and robust applications in biological and physical sciences.

Prospects of NIR fluorescent nanosensors for green detection of SARS-CoV-2

“…Such a system may be extended for the NIR fluorescent sensors by replacing VIS fluorescent labels with the NIR fluorescent nanomaterials by appropriate excitations. [106] For example, optimizing the NIR fluorescent nanomaterials in Table 2 may provide excellent candidates for this alternative. However, some of these nanomaterials are not biocompatible after synthesis and require further functionalization.…”

Recent Progresses in NIR-I/II Fluorescence Imaging for Surgical Navigation

“…There is a wide application prospect of fluorescence imaging technologies in the biomedical field for the monitoring of physiological and pathological courses at the molecular and cellular levels by right of its intrinsic merits, including high spatiotemporal resolution, favorable sensitivity, and biocompatibility. Particularly, NIR-I emission (650–900 nm) instead of UV or visible fluorescence molecules is interested in applying in vivo fluorescence imaging because of its ability to greatly eliminate autofluorescence, decrease photon scattering, and enhance in-depth tissue penetration ( Liu et al, 2019 ; Ji et al, 2020 ; Jackson et al, 2021 ; Yan et al, 2021 ; Zeng et al, 2021 ). As stated earlier, in vivo fluorescence imaging utilizing NIR light with longer wavelengths (650–900 nm), rather than ultraviolet or visible light, is effective in minimizing interference from biological optical absorbers.…”

“…Fluorescence imaging in the first near-infrared region (NIR-I, 650–900 nm) has received widespread attention in biomedical research studies because of its quick feedback, high sensitivity, harmless radiation, and lower cost ( Liu et al, 2019 ; Ji et al, 2020 ; Jackson et al, 2021 ; Yan et al, 2021 ; Yu et al, 2021 ; Zeng et al, 2021 ). For example, NIR-I fluorophores utilizing reasonable design strategies were extensively used for biomedical usage including precise real-time sentinel lymph nodes/tumor description and intraoperative image-guided surgical resection of sentinel lymph nodes/tumor tissues ( Li et al, 2021 ).…”

Promising Sustainable Models Toward Water, Air, and Solid Sustainable Management in the View of SDGs

“…TBS is an innovative and radical identification technology based on fluorescence tracers and an identical detection unit to identify and sort different plastic packaging wastes (Gasde et al 2021). The basic idea of TBS depends on placing a fluorescent marker substance (oxide crystals doped with one of the heavy rare-earth ions such as ytterbium (Yb 3+ ) sensitizer ions, erbium (Er 3+ ), holmium (Ho 3+ ), or thulium (Tm 3+ ) activator ions) on the plastic package, marking either the packaging material itself or the label (Woidasky et al 2020;Jackson et al 2021). After bag opening of collected plastic packaging wastes, these wastes are simultaneously identified by near-infrared (NIR), ultraviolet (UV), or even X-ray detectors and separated and sorted based on the polymer types labeled with the appropriate fluorescent tracers (Woidasky et al 2020;Kusch et al 2021).…”