The flourishing advancements in nanotechnology significantly boost their application in biomedical fields. Whereas, inorganic nanomaterials are normally prepared and capped with hydrophobic ligands, which require essential surface modification to increase their biocompatibility and endow extra functions. Phenylboronic acid derivatives have long been known for its capacity for selective recognition of saccharides. Herein, we demonstrated a versatile surface modification strategy to directly convert hydrophobic inorganic nanocrystals into water-dispersible and targeting nanocomposites by employing boronic acid modified photo-polymerizable 10,12-pentacosadiynoicacid and further explore its potentials in selective cancer cell imaging.

Durable and multilevel information encryption technology has been of great importance in recent decades. Here, an inkjet printer-adaptable invisible ink was prepared with lanthanide nanoparticles, and optical decoding of information could only be achieved when specific ligand dipicolinic acid was utilized in the presence of UV illumination. In addition, the proposed protocols displayed long shelf life (>one year) and excellent durability even at harsh conditions such as in the presence of strong acids (1 M HCl) and alkalis (1 M NaOH). Meanwhile, such invisible inks could be further employed on a soft matrix via screen-printing, holding great potential for practical applications.