Abstract
Herein, we show that the substitution of Sr2+ by trivalent lanthanide ions (Lu3+, La3+, Tb3+) in SrTiO3 nanocrystals stabilizes and enhances Ti3+ near-infrared emission (around 800 nm). This emission occurs from the 6-fold coordinated Ti3+ luminescent centers that appear in the vacancy–Ti3+–O form after lanthanide doping into the Sr2+ site. The strong dependence of the Ti3+ emission on temperature provided means for the tailored chemical engineering of luminescent nanonthermometers able to read the temperature in three ways: from the changes in Ti3+ emission intensity, excited-state lifetime, and from the ratio of Tb3+ and Ti3+ emission intensities. We demonstrated the unprecedented temperature sensitivity of the lifetime-based luminescent thermometer (8.83% K−1) with SrTiO3:Tb3+, along with exceptional repeatability in measurements.
Highlights
Growing scientific attention on the utilization of inor ganic phosphors doped with transition metal ions (TM) for remote temperature sensing observed in recent years results from their several highly important advantages with respect to the other types of dopants used for this purpose[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
The studies devoted to the temperature dependence of the TM emission intensity are significantly important to understand the mechanism of the thermal quenching of the emission, the reliability of the temperature readout based on the luminescent thermometry (LT) which exploits single band emission as a thermometric parameter is questionable[21,22,23,24,25,26]
That may be concluded that the incorporation of Ln3+ ions is SrTiO3 matrix generate the defects in a structure that may be compensated by 3 routes: strontium vacancies, titanium vacancies or conduction electrons and expressed by the following formulas: Sr1-3/2xLnxTiO3, SrTi1-xLnxO3-δ or Sr1-x/2Ti1-x/ 2LnxO3, respectively [29,30,31,32]
Summary
Growing scientific attention on the utilization of inor ganic phosphors doped with transition metal ions (TM) for remote temperature sensing observed in recent years results from their several highly important advantages with respect to the other types of dopants used for this purpose[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. For biomedical applications, for example, this spectral range is not useful due to the high scattering and absorption of biological media in the visible range In this case, it is much more advantageous to develop infrared-emitting luminescent thermometers. The studies devoted to the temperature dependence of the TM emission intensity are significantly important to understand the mechanism of the thermal quenching of the emission, the reliability of the temperature readout based on the luminescent thermometry (LT) which exploits single band emission as a thermometric parameter is questionable[21,22,23,24,25,26] For this reason, a ratiometric LT that exploits the luminescence intensity ratio of either a different emission bands of TM or involves an emission band of the lanthanide ion co-dopant as an internal luminescent reference has been proposed[1]. This undoubtedly indicates the high appli cative potential of these nanocrystals for the remote temperature sensing
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
