Lanthanide-doped nanoparticles with near-infrared emission are attractive due to their fascinating merits. However, the unsatisfactory luminescent intensity, together with the relatively weak and narrow absorbance, substantially limit their practical implementation. Here, we present that the iridium-based organometallic complex can serve as the antenna to sensitize luminescence of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles. Specifically, a phosphonic acid-functionalized iridium complex, which can resist the aggregation-caused quenching and stably fix on the surface of nanoparticles, is designed. After the iridium complex is modified on the surface of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles, the luminescence of nanoparticles can be dramatically amplified by up to a factor of ~100. Luminescent mechanism investigation uncovers that the giant enhancement is attributed to the efficient triplet energy transfer from iridium complex to lanthanide-doped nanoparticles. Importantly, the iridium complex modified nanoparticles with broadband excitation show remarkable photostability and tunable luminescence, making them suitable for different applications. As a proof-of-concept experiment, we demonstrated the feasibility of such organometallic-inorganic hybrid nanoparticles for information encryption. These findings may enable versatile design of photosensitized lanthanide-doped nanoparticles overcoming the conventional limitation and further promote the development of hybrid lanthanide-doped nanoparticles.

Amplifying photoluminescence of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles by iridium phosphonate complex

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