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A facile synthesis approach and impact of shell formation on morphological structure and luminescent properties of aqueous dispersible NaGdF4:Yb/Er upconversion nanorods

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Abstract

A general facile synthesis approach was used for fabrication of highly emissive aqueous dispersible hexagonal phase upconversion luminescent NaGdF4:Yb/Er nanorods (core NRs) through metal complex decomposition process. An inert NaGdF4 and porous silica layers were grafted surrounding the surface of each and every NRs to enhance their luminescence efficiency and colloidal dispersibility in aqueous environment. Optical properties in terms of band gap energy of core, core/shell, and silica-coated core/shell/SiO2 nanorods were observed to investigate the influence of surface coating, which was gradually decreased after surface coating because of increase crystalline size after growth of inert and silica shells. The inert shell formation before silica surface grafting, upconversion luminescence intensity was greatly improved by about 20 times, owing to the effective surface passivation of the seed core and, therefore, protection of Er3+ ion in the core from the nonradiative decay caused by surface defects. Moreover, after silica coating, core/shell nanorods shows strong upconversion luminescence property similar to the hexagonal upconversion core NRs. It is expected that these NaGdF4:Yb/Er@NaGdF4@SiO2 (core/shell/SiO2) NRs including highly upconversion emissive and aqueous dispersible properties make them an ideal materials for various photonic-based potential applications such as in upconversion luminescent bioimaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and photodynamic therapy.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported through the project funded by the National Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation (MAARIFAH), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, award number (13-Bio1246-02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Anees A. Ansari

  2. Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Ranvijay Yadav & S. B. Rai

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  1. Anees A. Ansari
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  2. Ranvijay Yadav
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  3. S. B. Rai
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Correspondence to Anees A. Ansari.

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Ansari, A.A., Yadav, R. & Rai, S.B. A facile synthesis approach and impact of shell formation on morphological structure and luminescent properties of aqueous dispersible NaGdF4:Yb/Er upconversion nanorods. J Nanopart Res 18, 370 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-016-3622-8

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