Issue 12, 2024
From the journal:

Chemical Science

Triplet energy transfer from quantum dots increases Ln(iii) photoluminescence, enabling excitation at visible wavelengths†

Tingting Huang, ORCID logo ‡a   Sheng He,‡b   Anji Ni,b   Tianquan Lian ORCID logo *b  and  Ming Lee Tang ORCID logo *a  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
E-mail: minglee.tang@utah.edu

b Department of Chemistry, Emory University, 1515 Dickey Drive Northeast, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA
E-mail: tlian@emory.edu

Abstract

Europium(III) complexes are promising for bioimaging because of their long-lived, narrow emission. The photoluminescence (PL) from europium(III) complexes is usually low. Thus, the effective utilization of low-energy light >400 nm and enhancement of PL are long-standing goals. Here, we show for the first time that 1-naphthoic acid triplet transmitter ligands bound to CdS quantum dots (QDs) and europium(III) complexes create an energy transfer cascade that takes advantage of the strong QD absorption. This is confirmed by transient absorption spectroscopy, which shows hole mediated triplet energy transfer from QDs to 1-NCA, followed by triplet transfer from 1-NCA to europium(III) complexes with an efficiency of 65.9 ± 7.7%. Smaller CdS QDs with a larger driving force lead to higher triplet transfer efficiency, with Eu(III) PL intensity enhanced up to 21.4 times, the highest value ever reported. This hybrid QD system introduces an innovative approach to enhance the brightness of europium complexes.

Graphical abstract: Triplet energy transfer from quantum dots increases Ln(iii) photoluminescence, enabling excitation at visible wavelengths

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SC05408J
Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
11 Oct 2023
Accepted
18 Feb 2024
First published
27 Feb 2024
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2024,15, 4556-4563

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Triplet energy transfer from quantum dots increases Ln(III) photoluminescence, enabling excitation at visible wavelengths

T. Huang, S. He, A. Ni, T. Lian and M. Lee Tang, Chem. Sci., 2024, 15, 4556 DOI: 10.1039/D3SC05408J

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