abstract
Lanthanide-activated SrF2 nanoparticles with a multishell architecture were investigated as optical thermometers in the biological windows. A ratiometric approach based on the relative changes in the intensities of different lanthanide (Nd3+ and Yb3+) NIR emissions was applied to investigate the thermometric properties of the nanoparticles. It was found that an appropriate doping with Er3+ ions can increase the thermometric properties of the Nd3+-Yb3+ coupled systems. In addition, a core containing Yb3+ and Tm3+ can generate light in the visible and UV regions upon near-infrared (NIR) laser excitation at 980 nm. The multishell structure combined with the rational choice of dopants proves to be particularly important to control and enhance the performance of nanoparticles as NIR nanothermometers.
keywords
UP-CONVERSION LUMINESCENCE; CORE-SHELL NANOPARTICLES; ENERGY-TRANSFER; QUANTUM DOTS; FLUORESCENT NANOTHERMOMETERS; UPCONVERTING NANOPARTICLES; CORE/SHELL NANOPARTICLES; FLUORIDE NANOCRYSTALS; HYBRID NANOSTRUCTURES; OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY
subject category
Chemistry; Science & Technology - Other Topics; Materials Science; Physics
authors
Cortelletti, P; Skripka, A; Facciotti, C; Pedroni, M; Caputo, G; Pinna, N; Quintanilla, M; Benayas, A; Vetrone, F; Speghini, A
our authors
Antonio Hernández Benayas
Researcher
Nicola Pinna
ResearcherGroups
acknowledgements
AS, PC and MP thank University of Verona for financial support in the framework of the "Ricerca di base" project. AB thanks the Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Breast Cancer Society of Canada (CIHR-BCSC), for the Postdoctoral Fellowship given to him through the Eileen Iwanicki Postdoctoral Fellowship on Breast Cancer Imaging. FV is grateful to both the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec - Nature et technologies (FRQNT) for supporting his research.