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A new class of luminescent nanoprobes based on main-group Sb3+ emitters

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Abstract

Inorganic luminescent nanocrystals (NCs) doped with main-group ns2-metal ions have evoked tremendous interest in many technological fields owing to their superior optical properties. Herein, we report a new class of luminescent nanoprobes based on 5s2-metal Sb3+-doped CaS NCs that are excitable by using a near ultraviolet light-emitting diode. The optical properties and excited-state dynamics of Sb3+ in CaS NCs are comprehensively surveyed through temperature-dependent steady-state and transient photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies. Owing to the strong electron-phonon coupling of Sb3+ in CaS NCs, Sb3+ ions experience a dynamic Jahn-Taller distortion on the excited state, which results in bright green PL of Sb3+ with a broad emission band, a large Stokes shift, and a high PL quantum yield up to 17.3%. By taking advantage of the intense PL of Sb3+, we show in proof-of-concept experiments the application of biotinylated CaS:Sb3+ NCs as sensitive luminescent nanoprobes for biotin receptor-targeted cancer cell imaging and zebrafish imaging with a high imaging contrast. These findings provide fundamental insights into the excited-state dynamics of Sb3+ in CaS NCs, thus laying a foundation for future design of novel and versatile luminescent nanoprobes via main-group ns2-metal doping.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Science and Technology Cooperation Fund between Chinese and Australian Governments (No. 2017YFE0132300), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the CAS (No. XDB20000000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11774345, 12074379, 21771185, 21875250, and 11904365), the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams, Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (No. 2020I0037), and Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China (No. 2021ZR125).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Design and Assembly of Functional Nanostructures, Fujian Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials, and State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, 350002, China

    Chunguang Zhang, Meiran Zhang, Wei Zheng, Jiaojiao Wei, Shiteng Wang, Ping Huang, Xingwen Cheng, Tao Dai, Zhuo Chen & Xueyuan Chen

  2. College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, China

    Chunguang Zhang, Wei Zheng, Ping Huang & Xueyuan Chen

  3. Fujian Science Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China, Fuzhou, 350108, China

    Wei Zheng, Ping Huang & Xueyuan Chen

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  1. Chunguang Zhang
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  2. Meiran Zhang
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  3. Wei Zheng
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  9. Zhuo Chen
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  10. Xueyuan Chen
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Correspondence to Wei Zheng or Xueyuan Chen.

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Zhang, C., Zhang, M., Zheng, W. et al. A new class of luminescent nanoprobes based on main-group Sb3+ emitters. Nano Res. 15, 179–185 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3454-4

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