Journal
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY C
Volume 9, Issue 28, Pages 8902-8911Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/d1tc01419f
Keywords
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Funding
- Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad-MINECO [MAT2016-75955, MAT2017-83111R, PID2019-106820RB-C21]
- Comunidad de Madrid [B2017/BMD-3867]
- Colfuturo
- Colombian government
- UCM
- Santander bank [CT 17/17-CT18/17]
- Fundacion para la investigacion biomedica del Hospital Ramon y Cajal (FIBioHRyC)
- Instituto Ramon y Cajal de Investigacion Sanitaria (IRyCIS)
- European Comission Horizon 2020 project NanoTBTech [801305]
- European Commission [PEJD-2018-PRE/IND-9118]
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The study analyzed the effect of Er3+ and Yb3+ dopant concentrations on the luminescence properties of nanoparticles and found that there is a significant increase in luminescence intensity as the Yb/Er ratio increases following a power-law behavior, with greater enhancement at low excitation intensities. Saturation occurs at a Yb/Er ratio of around two, with a slight peak when this ratio is around four.
The dopant concentration of lanthanide ions in photon upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) remains one of the key points to boost the brightness of these nanomaterials and, therefore, their application developments. Here, we analyzed the effect of Er3+ and Yb3+ dopant concentrations of beta-NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ nanoparticles on the visible upconversion and near-infrared downconversion luminescence intensities. Our approach carefully excluded all other factors whose variation affects luminescence properties such as the size, morphology, crystal structure, ion distribution, ligand, and surrounding medium, allowing us to exactly infer the influence of the ratio of Yb3+ to Er3+ ions on the nanoparticle luminescence. To maintain the size and morphological properties of nanoparticles, we used a total dopant concentration of 22% while varying the ratio of Yb3+ to Er3+ ions from 0 to 10. A huge increase in luminescence takes place as the Yb/Er ratio increases following a power-law behavior, and this luminescence enhancement is greater at low excitation intensities. Above a Yb/Er ratio of around two, saturation occurs with a slight peak when this ratio is around four. Simulations using a rate equation model showed that upconversion luminescence (UCL) is mainly produced by the energy transfer between neighboring Er3+ ions at low Yb/Er ratios, while at high ratios, the energy transfer from Yb3+ to Er3+ ions dominates. However, downconversion luminescence (DCL) is produced at all analyzed ratios, except 0, by the previous mechanism.
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