The chemical architecture of lanthanide doped core–shell up-converting nanoparticles can be engineered to purposely design the properties of luminescent nanomaterials, which are typically inaccessible to their homogeneous counterparts. Such an approach allowed to shift the up-conversion excitation wavelength from ∼980 to the more relevant ∼808 nm or enable Tb or Eu up-conversion emission, which was previously impossible to obtain or inefficient. Here, we address the issue of limited temperature sensitivity range of optical lanthanide based nano-thermometers. By covering Yb–Er co-doped core nanoparticles with the Yb–Nd co-doped shell, we have intentionally combined temperature dependent Er up-conversion together with temperature dependent Nd → Yb energy transfer, and thus have expanded the temperature response range ΔT of a single nanoparticle based optical nano-thermometer under single ∼808 nm wavelength photo-excitation from around ΔT = 150 K to over ΔT = 300 K (150–450 K). Such engineered nanocrystals are suitable for remote optical temperature measurements in technology and biotechnology at the sub-micron scale.

Nanomaterials are proving useful for regenerative medicine in combination with stem cell therapy. Nanoparticles can be administrated and targeted to desired tissues or organs and subsequently, be used in non-invasive real-time visualization and tracking of cells by means of different imaging techniques, they can act as therapeutic agent nanocarriers, and can also serve as scaffolds to guide the growth of new tissue. Nanoparticles can be of different chemical nature, such as gold, iron oxide, cadmium selenide, and carbon, and have the potential to be used in regenerative medicine. However, there are still many issues to be solved, such as toxicity, stability, and resident time. Upconversion nanoparticles have relevant properties such as: i) low toxicity, ii) capability to absorb light in an optical region where absorption in tissues is minimal and penetration is optimal (note they can also be designed to emit in the NIR region), and iii) they can be used in multiplexing and multimodal imaging. An overview on the potentiality of upconversion materials in regenerative medicine is given.

An unprecedented efficiency of upconversion is observed in a nonanuclear Yb ₈ Tb complex with green emission upon NIR excitation of Yb.