Development of a portable spectrophotometer for the detection of upconversion nanoparticle
Abstract
Luminescence particles are very important in analysis or in a variety of other applications like environmental sensing, biological imaging and disease diagnosis to name but a few. UCNP is capable of changing near-infrared excitation to visible light emissions referred to as anti-Stokes luminescence. This minimizes the interference of the natural autofluorescence in biological samples. The ease of penetration into the samples and their depth by the fluorophores, in addition to the fact that the particles are chemically stable and thus superior to traditional fluorophores. In order to expand the use of UCNP applications to non-controlled lab environments, an increasing demand exists in the provision of compact user-friendly instrumentation. A portable spectrophotometer optimally designed to measure UCNP quantitatively was developed in this study. The machine has a safe zone having special lid enclosure to keep the cuvette containing UCNP solution. The enclosure blocks all the light when it is closed, which prevents the measurements of the enclosure against external influences. It has a TSL2591 light sensor to measure the emitted luminescence and a fiber optic connection to excite the UCNPs with a 980 nm near-infrared laser beam with a 500 mW power output. Wireless communication is offered with the help of a router linked to a developed Android application. This application enables one to handle materials, calibrate device, trade in data, and plot correlation and calibration curves. Tests done following calibration indicated a R2 value of 0.76 and 0.839 between computed and experimental values of UCNP.
Keywords
Supporting Institution
Project Number
References
- [1] A. J. Das, A. Wahi, I. Kothari, and R. Raskar, “Ultra-portable, wireless smartphone spectrometer for rapid, non-destructive testing of fruit ripeness”, Sci. Rep. 6, 32504, 2016, doi:10.1038/srep32504.
- [2] J. Wu, J. Wu, W. Wei, Y. Zhang, and Q. Chen, Upconversion nanoparticles based sensing: from design to point-of-care testing, Nano-Micro Small, 20 (29), 2024, doi:10.1002/smll.202311729.
- [3] A. Das, Portable uv–visible spectroscopy – instrumentation, technology, and applications, in portable spectroscopy and spectrometry, Wiley, 179-207, 2021, doi:10.1002/9781119636489.ch8.
- [4] D. Giust et al., Graphene oxide-upconversion nanoparticle based portable sensors for assessing nutritional deficiencies in crops, ACS Nano, 6(2), 6273–6279, 2018, doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b03261.
- [5] Z. Zhu, Smartphone-based apparatus for measuring upconversion luminescence lifetimes. Anal Chim Acta, 1054, 122-127, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2018.12.016.
- [6] Y. Rasmi, X. Li, J. Khan, T. Ozer, and J. R. Choi, Emerging point-of-care biosensors for rapid diagnosis of COVID-19: current progress, challenges, and future prospects, Anal Bioanal Chem, 413, 4137-4159, 2021, doi:10.1007/s00216-021-03377-6.
- [7] W. Jiang et al., A Comprehensive review on upconversion nanomaterials-based fluorescent sensor for environment, biology, food and medicine applications, Biosensors, 12(11), 1036, 2022, doi:10.3390/bios12111036.
- [8] Y. Gong et al., A portable and universal upconversion nanoparticle-based lateral flow assay platform for point-of-care testing, Talanta201, 126-133, 2019, doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2019.03.105.
Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Nanochemistry, Circuits and Systems
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Tarık Sapmaz
*
0000-0001-9258-6173
Türkiye
Yalcin Albayrak
0000-0002-5632-0869
Türkiye
Burhan Ateş
0000-0001-6080-229X
Türkiye
Meltem Asiltürk
0000-0001-8447-5684
Türkiye
Publication Date
June 30, 2026
Submission Date
November 21, 2025
Acceptance Date
March 8, 2026
Published in Issue
Year 2026 Number: 065