Upconversion Nanodevice-Assisted Healthy Molecular Photocorrection

Abstract

Mushrooms are rich in ergosterol, a precursor of ergocalciferol, which is a type of vitamin D2. The conversion of ergosterol to ergocalciferol takes place in the presence of UV radiation by the cleavage of the “B-ring” in the ergosterol. As the UV radiation cannot penetrate deep into the tissue, only minimal increase occurs in sunlight. In this study, upconversion nanoparticles with the property to convert deep-penetrating near-infrared radiation to UV radiation have been cast into a disk to use sunlight and emit UV radiation for vitamin D conversion. An engineered upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP) disk with maximum particles and limited clusters demonstrates ∼2.5 times enhanced vitamin D2 conversion.

Phone Camera Nano-Biosensor Using Mighty Sensitive Transparent Reusable Upconversion Paper

“…From the literature, it was clear that this emission arises from a band corresponding to the 1 G 4 → 3 H 6 transition from the Tm 3+ activator in the NaYF 4 host having Yb 3+ as the sensitizer. Further, the ratio of Yb 3+ and Tm 3+ has to be optimized to avoid cross-relaxation and nonradiative loss, which may compromise the desired maximum of 475 nm emission. − Therefore, UCNPs with different Yb 3+ and Tm 3+ ratios were synthesized with Yb 3+ at 30% and varying Tm 3+ ion concentrations by the thermal decomposition method reported by us previously for the vitamin D fortification in mushrooms …”