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Enabling efficient NIR-II luminescence in lithium-sublattice core—shell nanocrystals towards Stark sublevel based nanothermometry

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Abstract

The luminescence in the second near-infrared (NIR-II) spectral region (1,000–1,700 nm) has recently attracted great attention for emerging biological applications owing to its merit of deep tissue bioimaging and high spatiotemporal resolution. However, it still remains a challenge to achieve the highly efficient NIR-II emissions of lanthanides in nanomaterials. Herein, we report an ideal design of sensitizing lithium sublattice core—shell nanocrystals for efficient NIR-II emission properties from a set of lanthanide emitters including Er3+, Tm3+, Ho3+, Pr3+, and Nd3+. In particular, the typical NIR-II emission of Er3+ at 1.5 µm was greatly enhanced by further manipulating the energy transfer via Er3+—Ce3+ cross-relaxation, and the quantum yield can reach up to 35.74% under 980 nm excitation (12.5 W·cm−2), which is the highest value to the best of our knowledge. The 808 nm responsive efficient NIR-II emission was also enabled at the single-particle level through rational core—shell—shell structure design. Moreover, the lithium-sublattice provides an obvious spectral Stark-splitting feature, which can be used in the ultrasensitive NIR-II nanothermometer with relative sensitivity of 0.248% K−1 and excellent thermal cycling stability. These results open a door to the research of new kinds of efficient NIR-II luminescent materials, showing great promise in various frontier fields such as deep tissue nanothermometry and in vivo bioimaging.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51972119 and 52272151), the Research Project of Education Department of Jiangxi Province (No. GJJ210846), and the Doctoral Scientific Research Foundation of Jiangxi University of Science and Technology (No. 205200100554).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Rare Earth Functional Material Innovation Center, Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Luminescence Materials and Devices of Jiangxi Province, College of Rare Earths, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, 341000, China

    Songbin Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fiber Laser Materials and Applied Techniques, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China

    Songbin Liu, Zhengce An, Jinshu Huang & Bo Zhou

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  1. Songbin Liu
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  2. Zhengce An
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Correspondence to Bo Zhou.

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Enabling efficient NIR-II luminescence in lithium-sublattice core-shell nanocrystals towards Stark sublevel based nanothermometry

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Liu, S., An, Z., Huang, J. et al. Enabling efficient NIR-II luminescence in lithium-sublattice core—shell nanocrystals towards Stark sublevel based nanothermometry. Nano Res. 16, 1626–1633 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5121-9

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