Latest developments in the upconversion nanotechnology for the rapid detection of food safety: A review

Abstract

Food safety has become a topic of global concern in the recent decades. The significant food safety incidents occur from time to time around the world, seriously threatening the public health and causing extensive economic losses. In particular, the occurrence of COVID-19 highlights the importance of the food safety for the public health. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a fast, simple, sensitive, and efficient method for the detection of food safety. In recent years, the upconversion (UC) nanotechnology has been widely used in the field of food detection. The UC fluorescence analysis technology possesses the advantages of ultra-sensitivity detection, non-invasiveness, light stability, etc., and has broad application prospects in the field of food safety. After cladding and surface modification, it can be combined with other substances through a variety of mechanisms, such as electrostatic interaction, thereby expanding its application in the food safety detection. Thus, overall, there is a vital need to evaluate and utilize the potential of UC nanoparticles in the field of rapid detection of food safety.

Recent advances in rare earth ion‐doped upconversion nanomaterials: From design to their applications in food safety analysis

“…It entails dissolving the precursors in a solvent to produce a salt solution having one or more ions. After the precipitation is post-treated, a suitable precipitant is successively added to form an insoluble co-precipitate, and the desired nanocrystals are gained (Ji et al, 2022;Zhu et al, 2019;Zou et al, 2017). In the first application of this method, Li et al produced coreshell structured pure-hexagonal-phase NaYF 4 :Yb,Er/Tm nanospheres with thin and uniform silica coatings by co-precipitation.…”

“…These instrumental approaches, which combine either GC or LC with a selective detection technique, provide good accuracy, repeatability, and sensitivity analysis for most analytes, even at levels as low as the nanogram (Abdul Hakeem et al., 2021; Tittlemier, 2010). Hence, the traditional laboratory detection techniques depend on fully functional laboratories, which demand significant, expensive facility investments (Ji et al., 2022). In addition, these methods have inherent hindrances, such as cumbersome sample pretreatment steps (Rong et al., 2021), prolonged detection times (Ji et al., 2022), and the need for skilled operators (Liu, Ouyang, et al., 2017).…”

“…Hence, the traditional laboratory detection techniques depend on fully functional laboratories, which demand significant, expensive facility investments (Ji et al., 2022). In addition, these methods have inherent hindrances, such as cumbersome sample pretreatment steps (Rong et al., 2021), prolonged detection times (Ji et al., 2022), and the need for skilled operators (Liu, Ouyang, et al., 2017). Wherefore, developing a simple, inexpensive, precise, and sensitive approach for on‐site detection is crucial.…”

Core-Shell-Shell Upconversion Nanomaterials Applying for Simultaneous Immunofluorescent Detection of Fenpropathrin and Procymidone

“…Currently, upconversion nanomaterials have been widely used in fields such as biological detection, biological imaging, biosensing, and immune analysis [7,8]. With the increasing severity of food safety issues, in order to improve the speed, sensitivity, and accuracy of detection, UCNPs have been applied to the detection of pesticide residues, mycotoxins, heavy metals, and other pollutants due to their unique advantages [9,10]. Qin et al [11] prepared two types of core-shell UCNPs, NaYF 4 : Yb, Er@NaYF 4 and Foods 2023, 12, 3445 2 of 14 NaYF 4 : Yb, Tm@NaYF 4 , and coupled them with two aptamers, OTA and ZEN, respectively, for the preparation of upconversion fluorescent probes, and established a magnetically controlled two-colour upconversion fluorescence method for the simultaneous determination of ochratoxin A (OTA) and zearalenone (ZEN) in maize and oat flour.…”

Hydrothermal Synthesis and Properties of Yb3+/Tm3+ Doped Sr2LaF7 Upconversion Nanoparticles

“…Under a NIR laser source, UC phosphors effectively convert energy into shorter wavelength emissions (NIR, visible, or ultraviolet) via multiphoton absorption or efficient energy transfer [ 3 ]. These unique features of Ln 3+ -doped/co-doped UC phosphors enable a wide range of applications, such as LED devices [ 4 ], solar energy conversion [ 5 ], temperature sensors [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], latent fingerprint detection [ 9 , 10 ], biomedical imaging [ 11 , 12 ], food safety detection [ 13 ], etc. The NIR-to-NIR UC luminescence mechanism is gaining popularity due to its efficient way of producing NIR emission at nearly 800 nm when excited by a commercially available laser source (~980 nm) [ 9 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”