Lanthanide-doped nanocrystals that simultaneously convert near-infrared (NIR) irradiation into emission of shorter (ultraviolet-C, UVC) and longer wavelengths (NIR) offer many exciting opportunities for application in drug release, photodynamic therapy, deep-tissue bioimaging, and solid-state lasing. However, a formidable challenge is the development of lanthanide-doped nanocrystals with efficient UVC and NIR emissions simultaneously due to their low conversion efficiency. Here, we report a dye-sensitized heterogeneous core-multishell architecture with enhanced UVC emission and NIR emission under 793 nm excitation. This nanocrystal design efficiently suppresses energy trapping induced by interior lattice defects and promotes upconverted UVC emission from Gd. Moreover, a significant downshifting emission from Yb at 980 nm was also observed owing to an efficient energy transfer from Nd to Yb. Furthermore, by taking advantage of ICG sensitization, we realized a largely enhanced emission from the UVC to NIR spectral region. This study provides a mechanistic understanding of the upconversion and downshifting processes within a heterogeneous architecture while offering exciting opportunities for important biological and energy applications.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1nr07329j | DOI Listing |
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2025
School of Materials Science& Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
Lanthanide-doped upconversion luminescent nanoparticles (UCNPs) have garnered extensive attention due to their notable anti-Stokes shifts and superior photostability. Notably, Ho-based UCNPs present a complex energy level configuration, which poses challenges in augmenting their luminescence efficiency. Herein, a rational design strategy was used to enhance the upconversion luminescence intensity of Ho ions by improving the photon absorption ability and energy utilization efficiency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanoscale Horiz
January 2025
Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) convert near-infrared (IR) light into higher-energy visible light, allowing them to be used in applications such as biological imaging, nano-thermometry, and photodetection. It is well known that the upconversion luminescent efficiency of UCNPs can be enhanced by using a host material with low phonon energies, but the use of low-vibrational-energy inorganic ligands and non-epitaxial shells has been relatively underexplored. Here, we investigate the functionalization of lanthanide-doped NaYF UCNPs with low-vibrational-energy SnS ligands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMikrochim Acta
January 2025
Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Micro & Nano Materials Interface Science, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China.
An exciting upconversion nanoprobe conditioning strategy is proposed to improve the signal-to-background ratio (SBR) through a dye-sensitized strategy, in which the dye functions both as a recognition unit of the detection target and as a sensitizer to amplify the visible luminescence of the lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), instead of a quencher. The application of this dye-sensitized upconversion nanoprobe to the visual detection of nerve agent mimics diethoxy phosphatidylcholine (DCP) showed excellent detection performance, with up to 110-fold enhancement of the luminescence response of the probe in DCP solution and a detection limit as low as 2 nM. Finally, we performed visual detection of DCP solution and vapor by using test strips containing the probe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNano Lett
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Physics and Technology for Advanced Batteries, College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
Lanthanide-doped fluoride nanocrystals have emerged as promising tools in biomedicine, yet their applications are still limited by their low luminescence efficiency. Herein, we developed highly efficient lithium-based core-shell-shell (CSS) nanoprobes (NPs) featuring a rhombic active domain and a spherical inert protective shell. By introducing Yb as an energy transfer bridge and optimizing the CSS design, a remarkable 1643-fold enhancement in visible emission and a 33-fold increase in NIR emission are achieved compared to original nanoparticles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
December 2024
State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fiber Laser Materials and Applied Techniques, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center of Special Optical Fiber Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
Smart control of energy interactions plays a key role in manipulating upconversion dynamics and tuning emission colors for lanthanide-doped materials. However, quantifying the energy flux in particular energy migration in the representative sensitizer-activator coupled upconversion system has remained a challenge. Here we report a conceptual model to examine the energy flux in a single nanoparticle by designing an interfacial energy transfer mediated nanostructure.
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