Squaraine Dye-Sensitized Upconversion with Enhanced Stability and Minimized Aggregation-Caused Quenching

Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) doped with lanthanides have limited brightness due to their small absorption cross section to light. However, using organic sensitizers can significantly enhance their light absorption ability. Unfortunately, the practical application of organic sensitizers has bee...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNano letters Vol. 23; no. 11; pp. 5209 - 5216
Main Authors Hu, Jialing, Zhao, Bingjie, Wen, Rongrong, Zhang, Xuebo, Zhang, Yunxiang, Kohane, Daniel S., Liu, Qian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Chemical Society 14.06.2023
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Summary:Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) doped with lanthanides have limited brightness due to their small absorption cross section to light. However, using organic sensitizers can significantly enhance their light absorption ability. Unfortunately, the practical application of organic sensitizers has been hindered by poor stability and aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ). To address these issues, we developed a novel squaraine-based dye, SQ-739, for sensitizing upconversion luminescence (UCL). This dye has a maximum absorption at 739 nm, and shows 1 order of magnitude and 2-fold improved chemical- and photostability, compared to the commonly used cyanine-based dye IR-806, respectively. When SQ-739 is used to sensitize UCNPs, the resulting SQ-739-UCNPs exhibit excellent photostability and reduced ACQ in the presence of polar solvents. Moreover, at the single particle level, the SQ-739-UCNPs exhibit a 97-fold increase in UCL emission compared to bare UCNPs. This squaraine dye-based system represents a new design strategy for developing highly stable and efficient NIR upconversion probes.
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ISSN:1530-6984
1530-6992
DOI:10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01184