Issue 7, 2019

Aggregation-induced heterogeneities in the emission of upconverting nanoparticles at the submicron scale unfolded by hyperspectral microscopy

Abstract

Transparent upconverting hybrid nanocomposites are exciting materials for advanced applications such as 3D displays, nanosensors, solar energy converters, and fluorescence biomarkers. This work presents a simple strategy to disperse upconverting β-NaYF4:Yb3+/Er3+ or Tm3+ nanoparticles into low cost, widely used and easy-to-process polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based organic–inorganic hybrids. The upconverting hybrids were shaped as monoliths, films or powders displaying in the whole volume Tm3+ or Er3+ emissions (in the violet/blue and green/red spectral regions, respectively). For the first time, hyperspectral microscopy allows the identification at the submicron scale of differences in the hybrids' emission colour, due to variations in the relative intensity of the distinct components of the upconversion spectrum. The effect is attributed to the size distribution of the agglomerates of nanoparticles, highlighting the importance of studying the emission at submicron scales, since this effect is not observable in measurements recorded in larger areas.

Graphical abstract: Aggregation-induced heterogeneities in the emission of upconverting nanoparticles at the submicron scale unfolded by hyperspectral microscopy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 Dec. 2018
Accepted
28 Apr. 2019
First published
21 Maijs 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2019,1, 2537-2545

Aggregation-induced heterogeneities in the emission of upconverting nanoparticles at the submicron scale unfolded by hyperspectral microscopy

F. Gonell, A. M. P. Botas, C. D. S. Brites, P. Amorós, L. D. Carlos, B. Julián-López and R. A. S. Ferreira, Nanoscale Adv., 2019, 1, 2537 DOI: 10.1039/C8NA00412A

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