Colloidal Y, Yb co-doped BaClF nanoparticles for NIR bioimaging

Synthesized nanomaterials exhibit tunable optical and physicochemical properties that make them highly desirable for luminescence-based bioanalysis. Nanoparticles are particularly great candidates for medical bioimaging on living systems owing to their high sensitivity, cost-efficient production, and nondestructive impacts. The biggest challenges with using luminescent nanomaterials in bioimaging are tissue autofluorescence, short fluorescence lifetimes, and light scattering. To overcome these shortcomings, there has been a focus on lanthanide-doped materials due to their unique electronic configuration and energy states, which offer long fluorescence lifetimes and large Stokes and anti-Stokes shifts. In this paper, we report on the synthesis and characterization of BaClF nanocrystals co-doped with Y3+ and Yb3+. The nanocrystals were synthesized using a modification of a previously reported procedure. The nanocrystal morphology, phase, and composition are reported using data obtained from transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence techniques. Optical characterization data were obtained via near-infrared spectrophotometry and spectrofluorometry. The synthesized BaClF nanocrystals co-doped with Y and Yb show strong near-infrared emission peaks at 1008 nm upon excitation at 975 nm, which opens up applications of these particles in near-infrared bioimaging.