Issue 25, 2017

Lanthanide-doped LaOBr nanocrystals: controlled synthesis, optical spectroscopy and bioimaging

Abstract

Lanthanide (Ln3+)-doped nanocrystals (NCs) have shown great promise in diverse bioapplications. Exploring new host materials to realize efficient downshifting (DS) and upconversion (UC) luminescence is a goal of general concern. Ln3+-doped oxybromides, which bring together the advantages of high chemical/thermal stability of oxides and low phonon energy of bromides, have been rarely reported so far. Herein, we report the synthesis of monodisperse tetragonal-phase LaOBr:Ln3+ NCs via a modified thermal decomposition approach. Ln3+ dopants in LaOBr NCs occupying surface and lattice sites were verified based on high-resolution photoluminescence spectra of Eu3+ at 10 K. Intense DS emissions were observed in Ce3+ and Ce3+/Tb3+ doped LaOBr NCs upon excitation at 353.0 nm, which is far from the deep-UV absorption band of proteins. Moreover, UC properties of LaOBr:Yb3+/Ho3+ and Yb3+/Er3+ NCs were comprehensively surveyed upon near-infrared excitation at 980 nm. Particularly, the red-to-green ratio can be markedly increased from 0.1 to ∼300 in LaOBr:Yb3+/Er3+ NCs, resulting in high-chromatic-purity single-band red UC emission. Furthermore, we have employed the LaOBr:Ln3+ NCs for cancer cell imaging by virtue of their superior optical properties, showing great potential of LaOBr:Ln3+ nanoprobes in bioimaging.

Graphical abstract: Lanthanide-doped LaOBr nanocrystals: controlled synthesis, optical spectroscopy and bioimaging

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 mar 2017
Accepted
05 mai 2017
First published
05 mai 2017

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2017,5, 4827-4834

Lanthanide-doped LaOBr nanocrystals: controlled synthesis, optical spectroscopy and bioimaging

H. Wang, D. Tu, J. Xu, X. Shang, P. Hu, R. Li, W. Zheng, Z. Chen and X. Chen, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2017, 5, 4827 DOI: 10.1039/C7TB00857K

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