Owing to the alluring possibility of contactless temperature probing with microscopic spatial resolution, photoluminescence nanothermometry at the nanoscale is rapidly advancing towards its successful application in biomedical sciences. The emergence of near-infrared nanothermometers has paved the way for temperature sensing at the deep tissue level. However, water dispersibility, adequate size at the nanoscale, and the capability to efficiently operate in the second and third biological optical transparency windows are the requirements that still have to be fulfilled in a single nanoprobe. In this work, these requirements are addressed by rare-earth doped nanoparticles with core/shell-architecture, dispersed in water, whose excitation and emission wavelengths conveniently fall within the biological optical transparency windows. Under heating-free 800 nm excitation, double nanothermometry is realized either with Ho³⁺–Nd³⁺ (1.18–1.34 μm) or Er³⁺–Nd³⁺ (1.55–1.34 μm) NIR emission band ratios, both displaying equal thermal sensitivities around 1.1% °C⁻¹. It is further demonstrated that, along with the interionic energy transfer processes, the thermometric properties of these nanoparticles are also governed by the temperature dependent energy transfer to the surrounding solvent (water) molecules. Overall, this work presents a novel water dispersible double ratiometric nanothermometer operating in the second and third biological optical transparency windows. The temperature dependent particle–solvent interaction is also presented, which is critical for e.g. future in vivo applications.

The effects of gold nanoparticles deposited on titanium dioxide on the photocatalytic oxidative degradation of two organic substrates, i.e.formic acid and the azo dye Acid Red 1, and on the parallel O₂reduction yielding hydrogen peroxide have been investigated under visible light irradiation. The method employed to reduce Au(III) to metallic gold in the preparation of Au/TiO₂ photocatalysts was found to affect their photoactivity, also by modifying the properties of TiO₂. The presence of gold on TiO₂ facilitates both the electron transfer to O₂ and the mineralization of formic acid, which mainly proceeds through direct interaction with photoproduced valence band holes. The so-formed highly reductant CO₂˙⁻ intermediate species may contribute in maintaining gold in metallic form. The controversial results obtained in the photocatalytic degradation of the dye were rationalised by taking into account that with this substrate, which mainly undergoes oxidation through a hydroxyl radical mediated mechanism, the photogenerated holes may partly oxidise gold nanoparticles, which consequently act as recombination centres of photoproduced charge carriers.