Tsang Chung Yin, Liu Jinliang, Leo Hwa Liang, Zhang Yong
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583.
School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, 99 Shangda Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai 200444, China.
Nano Lett. 2024 Oct 9;24(40):12368-12373. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c02295. Epub 2024 Sep 13.
Persistent luminescent nanoparticles (PLNPs) are promising for many bioapplications due to their unique afterglow luminescence following the stoppage of light excitation. However, PLNPs are prone to surface quenching that results in weak afterglow luminescence. Although some efforts have been made to reduce surface quenching through designing homogeneous core-shell PLNPs, the enhancement in afterglow luminescence was insignificant. We hypothesize that the independent absorption and emission of the shell caused less energy to reach the activator ions in the core. Hence, a heterogeneous core-shell PLNP where the shell has a higher band gap than the core would reduce the absorption and emission of the shell. In this work, ZnGaO and ZnGeO were coated on ZnGaGeO:Cr and ZnGaGeO:Eu nanocrystals, respectively, to form heterogeneous core-shell PLNPs and significant luminescence enhancement was achieved compared to their traditional homogeneous core-shell nanostructures.
持久性发光纳米颗粒（PLNPs）因其在光激发停止后独特的余辉发光特性而在许多生物应用中具有广阔前景。然而，PLNPs容易发生表面猝灭，导致余辉发光较弱。尽管已经通过设计均匀的核壳结构PLNPs来减少表面猝灭，但余辉发光的增强并不显著。我们推测，壳层的独立吸收和发射使得到达核层中激活离子的能量减少。因此，壳层带隙高于核层的异质核壳PLNP会减少壳层的吸收和发射。在这项工作中，分别在ZnGaGeO:Cr和ZnGaGeO:Eu纳米晶体上包覆ZnGaO和ZnGeO，形成异质核壳PLNPs，与传统的均匀核壳纳米结构相比，实现了显著的发光增强。
