TY - JOUR A1 - Geißler, Daniel A1 - Würth, Christian A1 - Wolter, C. A1 - Weller, H. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute T1 - Excitation wavelength dependence of the photoluminescence quantum yield and decay behavior of CdSe/CdS quantum dot/quantum rods with different aspect ratios JF - Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) N2 - The excitation wavelength (lexc) dependence of the photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (FPL) and decay behavior (tPL) of a series of CdSe/CdS quantum dot/Quantum rods (QDQRs), consisting of the same spherical CdSe core and rod-shaped CdS shells, with aspect ratios ranging from 2 to 20 was characterized. lexc between 400–565 nm were chosen to cover the first excitonic absorption band of the CdSe core material, the onset of absorption of the CDs shell, and the region of predominant shell absorption. A strong lexc dependence of relative and absolutely measured FPL and tPL was found particularly for the longer QDQRs with higher aspect ratios. This is attributed to combined contributions from a length-dependent shell-to-core exciton localization efficiency, an increasing number of defect states within the shell for the longest QDQRs, and probably also the presence of absorbing, yet non-emitting shell material. Although the FPL values of the QDQRs decrease at shorter wavelength, the extremely high extinction coefficients introduced by the shell outweigh this effect, leading to significantly higher brightness values at wavelengths below the absorption onset of the CdS Shell compared with direct excitation of the CdSe cores. Moreover, our results present also an interesting example for the comparability of absolutely measured FPL using an integrating sphere setup and FPL values measured relative to common FPL standards, and underline the Need for a correction for particle scattering for QDQRs with high aspect ratios. KW - Quantum dot KW - Quantum rod KW - Quantum yield KW - Integrating sphere KW - Decay time PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/C7CP02142A SN - 1463-9076 SN - 1463-9084 VL - 19 IS - 19 SP - 12509 EP - 12516 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) AN - OPUS4-40814 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kaiser, M. A1 - Würth, Christian A1 - Kraft, Marco A1 - Hyppänen, I. A1 - Soukka, T. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute T1 - Power-dependent upconversion quantum yield of NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ nano- and micrometer-sized particles – measurements and simulations JF - Nanoscale N2 - Photophysical studies of nonlinear lanthanide-doped photon upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) increasingly used in biophotonics and photovoltaics require absolute measurements of the excitation power density (P)-dependent upconversion luminescence (UCL) and luminescence quantum yields (ΦUC) for quantifying the material performance, UCL deactivation pathways, and possible enhancement factors. We present here the P-dependence of the UCL spectra, ΦUC, and slope factors of the different emission bands of representative 25 nm-sized oleate-capped β-NaYF4:17% Yb3+, 3% Er3+ UCNPs dispersed in toluene and as powder as well as ΦUC of 3 μm-sized upconversion particles (UCμP), all measured with a newly designed integrating sphere setup, enabling controlled variation of P over four orders of magnitude. This includes quantifying the influence of the beam shape on the measured ΦUC and comparison of experimental ΦUC with simulations utilizing the balancing power density model of the Andersson-Engels group and the simulated ΦUC of UCμP from the Berry group, underpinned by closely matching decay kinetics of our UC material. We obtained a maximum ΦUC of 10.5% for UCμP and a ΦUC of 0.6% and 2.1% for solid and dispersed UCNPs, respectively. Our results suggest an overestimation of the contribution of the purple and an underestimation of that of the red emission of β-NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+: microparticles by the simulations of the Berry group. Moreover, our measurements can be used as a guideline to the absolute determination of UCL and ΦUC KW - Upconversion KW - Photophysics KW - Nanoparticles PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c7nr02449e VL - 9 IS - 28 SP - 10051 EP - 10058 PB - The Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-41550 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute ED - Guhrenz, C. ED - Sayevich, V. ED - Weigert, Florian ED - Hollinger, E. ED - Reichhelm, A. ED - Gaponik, N. ED - Eychmüller, A. T1 - Transfer of Inorganic-Capped Nanocrystals into Aqueous Media JF - Transfer of Inorganic-Capped Nanocrystals into Aqueous Media N2 - We report on a novel and simple approach to surface ligand design of CdSe-based nanocrystals (NCs) with biocompatible, heterobifunctional polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules. This method provides high transfer yields of the NCs into aqueous media with preservation of the narrow and symmetric emission bands of the initial organic-capped NCs regardless of their interior crystal structure and surface chemistry. The PEG-functionalized NCs show small sizes, high photoluminescence quantum yields of up to 75%, as well as impressive optical and colloidal stability. This universal approach is applied to different fluorescent nanomaterials (CdSe/CdS, CdSe/CdSCdxZn1-xS, and CdSe/CdS/ZnS), extending the great potential of organic-capped NCs for biological applications. KW - Fluorescence KW - Ligand exchange KW - Quantum dot KW - Surface chemistry KW - Semiconductor nanocrystal KW - Quantum yield KW - Lifetime KW - Dispersibillity KW - Colloid PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b02319 VL - 8 IS - 22 SP - 5573 EP - 5578 PB - The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters AN - OPUS4-43377 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Pilch, A. A1 - Würth, Christian A1 - Kaiser, Martin A1 - Wawrzynczyk, D. A1 - Kurnatowska, M. A1 - Arabasz, S. A1 - Prorok, K. A1 - Samoc, M. A1 - Strek, W. A1 - Bednarkiewicz, A. T1 - Shaping luminescent properties of Yb3+ and Ho3+ co-doped upconverting core-shell ß-NaYF4 nanoparticles by dopant distribution and spacing JF - Small N2 - At the core of luminescence color and lifetime Tuning of rare earth doped upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs), is the understanding of the Impact of the particle architecture for commonly used sensitizer (S) and activator (A) Ions. In this respect, a series of core@Shell NaYF4 UCNPs doped with Yb3+ and Ho3+ ions are presented here, where the same dopant concentrations are distributed in different particle architectures following the scheme: YbHo core and YbHo@..., ...@YbHo, Yb@Ho, Ho@Yb, YbHo@Yb, and Yb@YbHo core-Shell NPs. As refealed by quantitative steady-state and time-resolved luminescence studies, the relative spatial Distribution of the A and S ions in the UCNPs and their protection from surface quenching has a critical Impact on ther luminescence characteristics. Although the increased amount of Yb3+ Ions boosts UCNP Performance by amplifying the Absorption, the Yb3+ ions can also efficiently dissipate the energy stored in the material through energy Migration to the surface, thereby reducing the Overall energy Transfer Efficiency to the activator ions. The results provide yet another proof that UC Phosphor chemistry combined with materials Engineering through intentional core@shell structures may help to fine-tune the luminescence Features of UCNPs for their specific future applications in biosensing, bioimaging, photovoltaics, and Display technologies. KW - Fluorescence KW - Upconversion KW - NIR KW - Nonlinear KW - Nanoparticle KW - Surface chemistry KW - Quantum yield KW - Liftetime KW - Nanocrystal KW - Lanthanide KW - Ho(III) KW - Yb(III) KW - Mechanism KW - Absolute flourescence KW - Excitation power density dependence PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201701635 SN - 1613-6810 VL - 13 IS - 47 SP - 1701635, 1 EP - 13 PB - WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & co. KGaA CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-43629 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Gorris, H.H. T1 - Perspectives and challenges of photon-upconversion nanoparticles - Part I: routes to brighter particles and quantitative spectroscopic studies JF - Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry N2 - Lanthanide-doped photon-upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) have been the Focus of many Research activities in materials and life sciences in the last 15 years because of their potential to convert light between different spectral regions and their unique photophysical properties. To fully exploit the application potential of These facinating nanomaterials, a number of challenges have to be overcome, such as the low brightness, particularly of small UCNPs, and the reliable quantification of the excitation-power-density-dependent upconversion luminescence. In this series of critical Reviews, recent developments in the design, Synthesis, optical-spectroscopic characterization, and application of UCNPs are presented with Special Focus on bioanalysis and the life sciences. Here we guide the reader from the Synthesis of UCNPs to different concepts to enhance their luminescence, including the required optical-spectroscopic assessment to quantify material Performance; surface modification strategies and bioanalytical applications as well as selected examples of the use of UCNPs as reporters in different Assay formats are addressed in part II. Future Trends and challenges in the field of upconversion are discussed with Special emphasis on UCNP Synthesis and material characterization, particularly quantitative luminescence studies. KW - Fluorescence KW - Lanthanide KW - Upconversion KW - Brightness KW - Quantification KW - Nanoparticle KW - Absolute fluorometry KW - NIR KW - IR KW - Quantum yield PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-017-0499-z SN - 1618-2650 SN - 1618-2642 VL - 409 IS - 25 SP - 5855 EP - 5874 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-41665 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute ED - Martynenko, Irina ED - Baimuratov, A. S. ED - Osipova, V. A. ED - Kuznetsova, V. A. ED - Purcell-Milton, F. ED - Rukhlenko, I. D. ED - Fedorov, A. V. ED - Gun'ko, Y. K. ED - Baranov, A. V. T1 - Excitation energy dependence of the photoluminescence quantum yield of core/shell CdSe/CdS quantum dots and correlation with circular dichroism JF - Chemistry Of Materials N2 - Quantum dot (QD) based nanomaterials are very promising materials for the fabrication of optoelectronic devices like solar cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and photodetectors as well as as reporters for chemo- and biosensing and bioimaging. Many of These applications involve the monitoring of changes in photoluminescence intensity and energy transfer processes which can strongly depend on excitation wavelength or energy. In this work, we analyzed the excitation energy dependence (EED) of the photoluminescence quantum yields (PL QYs) and decay kinetics and the circular dichroism (CD) spectra of CdSe/CdS core/shell QDs with different thicknesses of the surface passivation shell. Our results demonstrate a strong correlation between the spectral position of local maxima observed in the EED of PL QY and the zero-crossing points of the CD profiles. Theoretical analysis of the energy band structure of the QDs with effective mass approximation suggests that these structures could correspond to exciton energy levels. This underlines the potential of CD spectroscopy for the study of electronic energy structure of chiroptically active nanocrystals which reveal quantum confinement effects. KW - Fluorescence KW - Semiconductor KW - Nanoparticle KW - Surface chemistry KW - Quantum yield KW - Lifetime KW - Nanocrystal KW - Cysteine KW - Thiol KW - Ligand KW - Quantum dot KW - CdSe KW - Exciton KW - Circular dichroism KW - Theory KW - Excitation spectra KW - Excitation energy dependence PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b04478 SN - 0897-4756 SN - 1520-5002 VL - 30 IS - 2 SP - 465 EP - 471 PB - ACS Publications AN - OPUS4-44034 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Wawrzynczyk, D. A1 - Kurnatowska, M. A1 - Arabasz, S. A1 - Prorok, K. A1 - Samoc, M. A1 - Strek, W. A1 - Bednarkiewicz, A. A1 - Pilch, A. A1 - Würth, Christian A1 - Kaiser, Martin T1 - Quantitation of luminescent properties of Yb and Ho co-doped NaYF4 colloidal nanoparticles - novel active-core-active-shell materials and novel characterization methods N2 - At the core of luminescence color and lifetime tuning of rare earth doped upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) is the understanding of the impact of the particle architecture for commonly used sensitizer (S) and activator (A) ions. In this respect, we present here a series of core@shell NaYF4 UCNPs doped with Yb3+ and Ho3+ ions, where the same dopant concentrations were distributed in different particle architectures following the scheme: YbHo core and YbHo@..., …@YbHo, Yb@Ho, Ho@Yb, YbHo@Yb, and Yb@YbHo core-shell NPs. As revealed by quantitative steady state and time-resolved luminescence studies, the relative spatial distribution of the A and S ions in the UCNPs and their protection from surface quenching has critical impact on their luminescent characteristics. Interestingly, although the increased amount of Yb3+ ions boosts UCNP performance by increasing the absorption, the Yb3+ ions can also dissipate the energy stored in the material through energy migration to surface, thereby reducing the overall energy transfer efficiency to the activator ions. T2 - COST Workshop CY - Aveiro, Portugal DA - 30.06.2017 KW - Upconversion KW - Nanoparticle KW - Flourescence KW - Core-shell architecture KW - NIR KW - Absolute flourometry KW - Integrating sphere spectroscopy KW - Ho(III) KW - Yb(III) PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-41161 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Huang, K. A1 - Liu, H. A1 - Kraft, Marco A1 - Shikha, S. A1 - Zheng, X. A1 - Agren, H. A1 - Würth, Christian A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Zhang, Y. T1 - A protected excitation-energy reservoir for efficient upconversion luminescence JF - Nanoscale N2 - Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) are of great interest for biomedical applications. Currently, the applicability of UCNP bionanotechnology is hampered by the generally low luminescence intensity of UCNPs and inefficient energy Transfer from UCNPs to surface-bound chromophores used e.g. for photodynamic therapy or analyte sensing. In this work, we address the low-Efficiency issue by developing versatile core-Shell nanostructures, where high-concentration sensitizers and activators are confined in the core and Shell Region of representative hexagonal NaYF2:Yb,Er UCNPs. After Doping concentration optimization, the sensitizer-rich core is able to harvest/accumulate more excitation energy and generate almost one order of Magnitude higher luminescence intesity than conventional homogeneously doped nanostructures. At the same time, the activator Ions located in the Shell enable a ~6 times more efficient resonant energy Transfer from UCNPs to surface-bound acceptor dye molecules due to the short distance between donor-acceptor pairs. Our work provides new insights into the rational design of UCNPs and will greatly encrease the General applicability of upconversion nanotechnologies. KW - Fluorescence KW - Lanthanide KW - Upconversion KW - Brightness KW - Quantification KW - Nanoparticle KW - Absolute fluorometry KW - NIR KW - IR KW - Quantum yield KW - Integrating sphere spectroscopy KW - Method KW - Energy transfer KW - Shell KW - Particle architecture PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c7nr06900f SN - 2040-3372 SN - 2040-3364 VL - 10 IS - 1 SP - 250 EP - 259 PB - The Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-43893 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pohl, O. A1 - Kraft, Marco A1 - Kovac, J. A1 - Belec, B. A1 - Ponikvar-Svet, M. A1 - Würth, Christian A1 - Lisjak, D. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute T1 - Optically detected degradation of NaYF4:Yb,Tm-based upconversion nanoparticles in phosphate buffered saline solution JF - Langmuir N2 - In a proof-of-concept study, we assessed different analytical and spectroscopic parameters for stability screening of differently sized β-NaYF4:20 mol % Yb3+, 2 mol % Tm3+ upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) exemplarily in the bioanalytically relevant buffer phosphate buffered saline (PBS; pH 7.4) at 37 and 50 °C. This included the potentiometric determination of the amount of released fluoride ions, surface analysis with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence measurements. Based on these results, the luminescence lifetime of the 800 nm upconversion emission was identified as an Optimum parameter for stability screening of UCNPs and changes in particle surface chemistry. KW - Upconverion KW - Nanoparticle KW - Dissolution PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b03907 SN - 0743-7463 VL - 33 IS - 2 SP - 553 EP - 560 PB - ACS AN - OPUS4-39212 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gorris, H.H. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute T1 - Perspectives and challenges of photon-upconversion nanoparticles - Part II: Bioanalytical applications JF - Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry N2 - In Part II of this Review series on lanthanide-doped photon-upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), we present and critically discuss the Performance and suitability of UCNPs as background-free luminescent Reporters in bioimaging and bioanalytical applications. The preparation of a biocompatible nanoparticle surface is an integral step for all life - science-related applications. UCNPs have found their way into a large number of diagnostic platforms, homogeneous and heterogeneous assay formats, and sensor applications. Many bioanalytical detection schemes involve Förster resonance energy transfert (FRET), which is still debated for UCNPs and Needs to be much improved. The Need for dedicated and standardized instruments as well as recent studies on the Dissolution and potential toxicity of UCNPs are addressed. Finally we outline future Trends and challenges in the field of upconversion. KW - Fluorescence KW - Lanthanide KW - Upconversion KW - Brightness KW - Quantification KW - Nanoparticle KW - Absolute fluorometry KW - NIR KW - IR KW - Quantum yield KW - Assay KW - Bioconjugation KW - Imaging KW - FRET KW - Sensor PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-017-0482-8 SN - 1618-2650 SN - 1618-2642 VL - 409 IS - 25 SP - 5875 EP - 5890 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-41706 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -