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NIR-excitable lanthanide nanocrystals (LnNC) show multi-color emission pattern composed of a multitude of narrow bands of varying intensity in the ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared detectable with miniaturized optical instruments and simple color (RGB) cameras in complex environments. This makes these chemically inert luminescent materials ideal candidates for anticounterfeiting and authentication applications as well as for modules in optical sensors in which the LnNCs can be used as nanolamps in combination with analyte-sensitive fluorophores or the temperature sensitivity of defined emission bands can be utilized.
Therefore, we are building up and exploring a platform of LnNC with application-specifically tuned size, composition, and surface chemistry.
Inorganic nanocrystals with linear and nonlinear luminescence in the ultraviolet, visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared like semiconductor quantum dots and spectrally shifting lanthanide-based nanophosphors have meanwhile found applications in the life and material sciences ranging from optical reporters for bioimaging and sensing over security barcodes to solid state lighting and photovoltaics. These nanomaterials commonly have increasingly sophisticated core/shell particle architectures with shells of different chemical composition and thickness to minimize radiationless deactivation at the particle surface that is usually the main energy loss mechanism [1]. For lanthanide-based spectral shifters, particularly for very small nanoparticles, also surface coatings are needed which protect near-surface lanthanide ions from luminescence quenching by high energy vibrators like O-H groups and prevent the disintegration of these nanoparticles under high dilution conditions. [2,3,4]. The identification of optimum particle structures requires quantitative spectroscopic studies focusing on the key performance parameter photoluminescence quantum yield [5,6], ideally flanked by single particle studies to assess spectroscopic inhomogeneities on a particle-to-particle level for typical preparation methods [7], Moreover, in the case of upconversion nanoparticles with a multi-photonic and hence, excitation power density (P)-dependent luminescence, quantitative luminescence studies over a broad P range are required to identify particle architectures that are best suited for applications in fluorescence assays up to fluorescence microscopy. Here, we present methods to quantify the photoluminescence of these different types of emitters in the vis/NIR/SWIR and as function of Pand demonstrate the importance of such measurements for a profound mechanistic understanding of the nonradiative deactivation pathways in semiconductor and upconversion nanocrystals of different size and particle architecture in different environments.
Optical spectroscopic studies of the influence of size, particle architecture, and surface chemistry of different types of photoluminescent nanocrystals with emission in the vis/NIR will be presented including semiconductor quantum dots and lanthanide-based upconversion nanoparticles. This will include the photophysics of these materials assessed with steady state and time-resolved fluorometry on the ensemble and single particle level and concepts for the quantification of surface groups at nanomaterials with optical methods using cleavable probes and catch-and-release assays.
Luminescence-based detection methods, ranging from fluorescence spectroscopy for photophysical and mechanistic studies over sensing applications, chromatographic separation techniques and the microarray technology with fluorescence detection to fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, single molecule spectroscopy, and molecular imaging to integrating sphere spectroscopy, are among the most widely used methods in the life and material sciences. This is due to e.g., their unique sensitivity enabling the detection of single molecules, potential for multiplexing, ease of combination with spatial resolution, and suitability for remote sensing. Many of these advantages are closely linked to the choice of suitable molecular and nanoscale fluorescent reporters, typically required for signal generation. This includes organic dyes without and with sensor function, fluorophore-encoded polymeric and silica nanoparticles as well as nanocrystalline systems like semiconductor quantum dots and upconversion phosphors, emitting in the visible (vis), near-infrared (NIR), and IR (infrared). Current challenges present the environment sensitivity of most fluorophores, rendering fluorescence spectra, measured intensities/fluorescence quantum yields, and fluorescence decay kinetics matrix-dependent, and instrument-specific distortions of measured fluorescence signals that need to be considered for quantification and comparability of data, particularly fluorescence spectra.
Here, current applications of luminescence-based methods and different types of reporters will be presented. In this context, suitable spectroscopic tools for the characteri-zation of the optical properties of fluorescent reporters and fluorophore-encoded microparticles, analytical tools for the determination of the surface chemistry of different types of particles, and different multiplexing strategies will be discussed.