Rare-earth-doped materials for biomedical applications

Abstract

Rare-earth-doped (RED) materials have been well studied for decades, and the advent of nanoscience and nanotechnology has found RED systems a fantastic tool for fabrication, characterization, and applications of RED-based nanostructures. In this chapter, we review several aspects of RED nanomaterials for biomedical applications. Besides a brief review on basics for fabrication and characterization, including spectroscopic methods, the chapter reviews recent research on nanothermometry and bioimaging, including multimodality methods, phototherapy, tumor treatment, and cancer theranostics. We point out, in the last section, perspectives and challenges for research in RED nanomaterials for applications in the bioworld.