Ultrabright Lanthanide Nanoparticles.

Invited for this month's cover are the collaborating groups of Dr. Loïc J. Charbonnière at CNRS/Université de Strasbourg, France and Dr. Ka-Leung Wong at Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong. The cover picture shows terbium-doped LaF nanoparticles that are surface functionalized by photon-harvesting antenna ligands. Surface capping with antenna ligands leads to ultrabright nanoparticles, with the typical green luminescence signature of the Tb atoms and very long excited-state lifetimes. These lanthanide dots can be incorporated into living cells at nanomolar concentrations for luminescence microscopy imaging. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/cplu.201600007.