Highly efficient near-infrared solid solution phosphors with excellent thermal stability and tunable spectra for pc-LED light sources toward NIR spectroscopy applications.

Near-infrared (NIR) luminescent materials have attracted wide research interest due to their unique photophysical properties for designing NIR light-emitting diodes (NIR LEDs). Here, a series of Cr3+-activated NIR-emitting solid solution phosphors, Gd1-xLux(Al1-xScx)3(BO3)4:0.01Cr3+ (GLASB:Cr3+) (x = 0 to 0.5), are successfully synthesized via a cosubstitution approach. The GLASB:Cr3+ phosphors reveal extraordinary optical performance with a desirable high IQE of 93.6%, considerable broadened FWHM (from 128 nm to 196 nm) and redshift of 119 nm (747 → 866 nm) as the amount of [Lu3+-Sc3+] ion doping increases. Moreover, their photoluminescent thermal stability is substantially improved, maintaining 105.7% of the initial integral intensity up to 150 °C, namely zero-thermal-quenching. The NIR pc-LED fabricated using the GLASB:Cr3+ phosphor generates an NIR output power of 46 mW and an electro-optical efficiency of 37% at a 120 mA input current. Finally, the characteristic NIR emission of this phosphor can not only be utilized in the fields of night-vision technology and biometric identification, but also exhibits a perfect match with the absorption of the bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) and light-harvesting protein (LHP) of photosynthetic bacteria (PSB), presenting a high application prospect for improving PSB photosynthesis.

A super water-resistant MXene sponge flexible sensor for bifunctional sensing of physical and chemical stimuli.

Flexible wearable sensors with multifunctional features have attracted great interest in various applications such as disease diagnosis, environmental detection and healthcare monitoring. However, it is still a challenge to achieve a multifunctional sensor with super water resistance without compromising the overall performance of the sensing material. Here, we developed a 3D bifunctional flexible sensor based on an MXene melamine sponge (MS) through a simple and effective ultrasonic mixing process and a further vacuum annealing process. The sensor is able to show excellent response to different stimuli, including pressure and humidity. The thermal annealing treatment allows MXene to adhere more firmly to the internal skeleton of the sponge, which does not easily fall off and improves the water resistance, thus achieving wearability and high sensitivity over a wide area. The T-MXene@MS sensor has a sensitivity of 9.97 kPa-1 in the 5-15 kPa range, a fast response time (180 ms), and good stability at 4000 cycles, enabling accurate monitoring of human movement. The sensor has a rich porous structure while maintaining its inherent flexibility, which allows for long term testing of human respiration as well as the ability to respond quickly to dynamic changes in humidity, demonstrating excellent long-term stability for 40 days of humidity detection.

Highly Stable Orange-Red Long-Persistent Luminescent CsCdCl3 :Mn2+ Perovskite Crystal.

Halide perovskite has been widely studied as a new generation of photoelectronic materials. However, their thermal and humidity-induced emission quenching have greatly limited their utility and reliability. Here, we report a hexagonal Mn2+ -doped CsCdCl3 perovskite crystal that possesses stable photoluminescence (PL) at both high temperature and humidity. The room temperature long-persistent luminescence (LPL) of the single crystals lasts up to 1480 s and can be adjusted by changing the concentration of Mn2+ ion doping. The characteristic emission of d-d transition of Mn2+ is realized, and the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) is up to 91.4 %, it can maintain more than 90 % of the initial PL spectral integral area at 150 °C (423 K). High humid stability PL can be achieved more than 75 % of the initial PL intensity after 55 days of immersion in water. These excellent properties show the application prospect of the LPL material in lighting indication and anti-counterfeiting.

Effect of Mn2+ on Upconversion Emission, Thermal Sensing and Optical Heater Behavior of Yb3+ - Er3+ Codoped NaGdF4 Nanophosphors.

In thiswork, we investigate the influence of Mn2+ on the emission color, thermal sensing and optical heater behavior of NaGdF4: Yb/Er nanophosphors, which the nanoparticles were synthesized by a hydrothermal method using oleic acid as both a stabilizing and a chelating agent. The morphology and crystal size of upconversion nano particles (UCNPs) can be effectively controlled through the addition of Mn2+ dopant contents in NaGdF4: Yb/Er system. Moreover, an enhancement in overall UCL spectra of Mn2+ doped UCNPs for NaGdF4 host compared to the UCNPs is observed, which results from a closed back-energy transfer between Er3+ and Mn2+ ions (4S3/2 (Er3+) → 4T1 (Mn2+) → 4F9/2 (Er3+)). The temperature sensitivity of NaGdF4:Yb3+/Er3+ doping with Mn2+ based on thermally coupled levels (2H11/2 and 4S3/2) of Er3+ is similar to that particles without Mn2+ in the 303-548 K range. And the maximum sensitivity is 0.0043 K-1 at 523 K for NaGdF4:Yb3+/Er3+/Mn2+. Interestingly, the NaGdF4:Yb3+/Er3+/Mn2+ shows preferable optical heating behavior, which is reaching a large value of 50 K. These results indicate that inducing of Mn2+ ions in NaGdF4:Yb3+/Er3+ nanophosphors has potential in colorful display, temperature sensor.

Fabrication of selective interface of ZnO/CdS heterostructures for more efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

In previous studies, photocatalytic heterostructures between two components have usually been distributed randomly at the material's surface. It is significant and important to fabricate a selective heterostructure interface with more efficient charge separation and transfer. In this study, active pores were first investigated through competitive adsorption, degradation efficiency, and selective corrosion. It was found that selective adsorption-induced photosensitization along with active facets led to selective photocorrosion around the pores in ZnO nanosheets. Then, comparison between the properties of selectively and randomly distributed ZnO/CdS heterostructures is presented, namely, phase composition, morphology, pore size, absorbance, electronic band structure, photocurrent density, electrochemical impedance, and hydrogen evolution. Due to the Z-scheme, ZnO/CdS heterostructure selectively bound at the active pores, due to which more efficient charge separation and higher hydrogen evolution were achieved for ZnO/CdS-S. Thus, fabrication of selective heterostructure interface endows ZnO/CdS with more efficient hydrogen evolution.

A temperature sensor based on the enhanced upconversion luminescence of Li+ doped NaLuF4:Yb3+,Tm3+/Er3+ nano/microcrystals.

In this paper, fluorescent and optical temperature sensing bi-functional Li+-doping NaLuF4:Ln (Ln = Yb3+, Tm3+/Er3+) nanocrystals were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method using oleic acid as a capping ligand. The crystal phase, size, upconversion (UC) properties, and optical temperature sensing characteristics of the crystals can be easily modified by Li+ doping. The results reveal that additional Li+ can promote the transformation from the hexagonal phase to the cubic phase and reduce the size of the nanocrystals. In addition, NaLuF4:Ln (Ln = Yb3+, Tm3+, Li+) nanocrystals present efficient near infrared (NIR) emission, which is beneficial for in vivo biomedical applications due to the increased penetration depth and low radiation damage of NIR light in bio-tissues. More importantly, under 980 nm excitation, the temperature dependent UCL from the 2H11/2 and 4S3/2 levels of Er3+ ions in NaLuF4:Yb3+,Er3+,Li+ microcrystals was investigated systematically. The fluorescence intensity ratios (FIR) of the pairs of thermally coupled levels were studied as a function of temperature in the range of 298-523 K. The maximum sensor sensitivities were found to be about 0.0039 K-1 (523 K) by exploiting the UC emissions from the 2H11/2 and 4S3/2 levels. This suggests that the Li+-doped upconversion luminescence (UCL) materials are promising prototypes for application as multi-mode probes for use in bio-separation and optical thermometers.

An upconversion luminescence and temperature sensor based on Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped GdSr2AlO5.

GdSr2AlO5:Yb3+/Er3+ micro-particles were synthesized by a simple solid state method. The structure, morphology, size and upconversion luminescence features have been characterized. These results indicated that GdSr2AlO5 has a contracted tetragonal cell and has irregular block shaped particles with sizes of about 5 µm. During upconversion, green (2H11/2, 4S3/2 → 4I15/2) (527 nm, 549 nm) and red (4F9/2 → 4I15/2) (665 nm) emissions had been observed, both of which occurred via a two-photon population process. In addition, green UC emission characteristics were studied, and it was found that its temperature ranged from 293 K to 473 K and the sensitivity was 0.0054 K-1 at 473 K. This indicated that GdSr2AlO5:Yb3+/Er3+ micro-particles may have potential application in high temperature environments for safety signs.

Emission in Gd6O5F8:Yb3+,Er3+ micro-particles for multimodal luminescence and temperature sensing upon 980 nm excitation.

Mono-dispersed Gd6O5F8:Yb3+/Er3+ micro-particles with different doping concentrations (Er3+: 0.1-1%) were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal route. The emission spectra, luminescent dynamic power-dependence and temperature sensing of up-conversion photoluminescence were investigated in detail. Under 980 nm excitation, the as-prepared samples exhibit intense red up-conversion and NIR emissions, which are influenced by the doping concentrations of Er3+ within Gd6O5F8. With increasing concentrations of Er3+ ions, the visible up-conversion emissions first increase and then decrease, but NIR down-conversion emissions display a distinct trend, in which one peak at 1010 nm is highly suppressed and another at 1530 nm is increased quickly. Furthermore, the 980 nm excited optical temperature sensing property of the synthesized sample is realized over a wide temperature range by monitoring the intensity of up-conversion luminescence. The study provides a novel strategy based on lanthanide oxy-fluoride micro-particles for multifunctional displays, lighting and temperature sensing in a single system.

The Upconversion Luminescence Properties of Er3+/Tm3+, Yb3+-Codoped Cubic BaLiF3.

Cubic BaLiF3 samples were prepared using a facile surfactant-assisted hydrothermal-microemulsion method. The samples were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The upconversion luminescence (UCL) properties of the Er3+/Tm3+, Yb3+- codoped BaLiF3 samples were measured under a 980 nm excitation wavelength. Moreover, the effects of varying the concentration of Li+ ions on the luminescence properties of Er3+, Yb3+ codoped BaLiF3 were also investigated. The Tm3+, Yb3+ codoped BaLiF3 samples displayed multi-color emissions. This behavior can be explained by the pump power dependence of the upconversion emissions and the energy levels diagram.

The crystal structure and upconversion properties of Yb³âº, Er³âº/Ho³âº codoped BaLiF3 microcrystals with different morphologies.

A series of x mol% Yb(3+), 1 mol% Ho(3+)/1 mol% Er(3+) (0 ≤ x ≤ 25) codoped BaLiF3 microcrystals with different cubic morphologies and sizes (1.52 µm-3.83 µm) were synthesized by a facile surfactant-assisted hydrothermal-microemulsion approach for the first time. The crystalline structure of BaLiF3 was established via the Rietveld refinement result of the powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. In addition, the growth process of cubic BaLiF3 crystals and the influence of different synthesis conditions on the morphology were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Moreover, in this paper we first investigated the upconversion luminescence (UCL) properties of new Er(3+)/Ho(3+), Yb(3+)-codoped BaLiF3 microcrystals under 980 nm excitation. The characteristic emission of Er(3+) and Ho(3+) was obtained, respectively. The blue emission in BaLiF3:Yb(3+), Ho(3+) which was comparatively more difficult to discover was also observed and explained by the energy level diagram. It is worthwhile to point out that BaLiF3:Yb(3+), Er(3+) practically showed pure red upconversion (UC) emission under excitation at 980 nm and the reasons behind this behavior are presented and discussed.