The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) under mixing with acrylic acid (AA) monomer has been studied by turbidity measurements. It has been found that the LCST of the HPMC was drastically reduced from 60°C to 38°C with the increase of the concentration of AA, while the HPMC is kept at 0.5 wt%. The driving force shifting the LCST is attributed to the hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interaction of the molecules. Then surfactant-free HPMC-PAA nanogels have been synthesized via the polymerization of AA monomer with the collapsed HPMC as a template or core at their LCST, using KPS and TEMED as redox initiator in the presence of BIS as cross-linking agent. HPMC-PAA nanogels have 50~150  nm diameters characterized by transmission electron microscope and dynamic light scattering. The HPMC-PAA nanogels exhibit the temperature phase transition behaviors, and these nanogels' volume phase transition temperature is close to the LCST of HPMC/AA system.

Sensitive detection of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in human serum is important for diagnosis of various diseases. In this work, a novel sandwich-structured upconversion nanoparticle, NaYF4:Yb/Er@NaErF4@NaYF4, is fabricated to construct an upconversional nanoprobe for ultrasensitive detection of phosphate and ALP activity. The inner shell of NaErF4 bridges the emitters in the core with the external luminescence quenchers to greatly improve the energy transfer efficiency. The quencher, herein, is a coordination complex formed between sulfosalicylic acid and ferric ions. Owing to the higher affinity for phosphate, ferric ions dissociate from the complex and potently combine with phosphate ions, thus interrupting the energy transfer process and recovering the luminescence. This upconversional nanoprobe shows rapid and sensitive detection of phosphate with a limit of detection of 2.5 nM. Because ALP catalyzes the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl phosphate to form p-nitrophenol and inorganic phosphate ions, the nanoprobe is further utilized to achieve sensitive detection of ALP with a limit of detection of 0.5 μU/mL. This novel strategy offers a new opportunity for developing sensitive upconversional nanoprobes and many other energy transfer-based applications.

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