Luminescence autofluorescence

In addition, the luminescence lifetime of quantum dots is approximately one order of magnitude longer than that of their organic counterparts.30 Thus, the autofluorescence of biological samples can effectively be filtered, for example, with time-gated measurements, in the case of these inorganic luminophores. Moreover, QDs are also particularly interesting for multiplexed analysis because of two of their inherent... 

An example of the utility of the time-resolved technique in eliminating the interference from background fluorescence in bioimaging is shown in Figure 13.17b. Nagano and coworkers compared time-resolved luminescence microscopy with conventional microscopy using live cultured HeLa cells injected with a Eu + complex Eu-36 (or Eu-37). In the prompt fluorescence images, both the luminescence of Eu-36 (or Eu-37) and weak autofluorescence from... 

In a recent study it was reported that luminescence reporters could be detected at lower concentrations and with a faster response time compared with fluorescent reporter proteins. In E. coli there is negligible luminescence background but a considerable autofluorescence background, so that larger amounts of protein are required to overcome background levels (Hakkila et al., 2002). 

Gold nanorods exhibit intense two-photon luminescence. Two-photon imaging of tissue phantoms treated with 50 x 15 nm gold nanorods functionalized with EGFR antibodies increased intensity by three orders of magnitude compared with cellular autofluorescence with 760 nm excitation [48]. 

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