Publication date: 10th April 2014
UpConversion (UC) materials are attracting an increasing interest due to their great potential applicability to many fields [1, 2].
These materials have the great feature to emit at higher energy than that absorbed. This process could take place through different mechanisms, depending on the kind of the involved molecules. Herein we report the UC occurring through triplet-triplet annihilation mechanism in presence of a sensitizer that absorbs the incident light and an emitter that after a triplet-triplet annihilation process emits at higher energy. In this case the sensitizer is a platinum metal complex, 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octaethyl-21H,23H-porphine platinum(II) (PtOEP), that transfers the absorbed energy to the emitter, 1,3,6,8-tetraphenylpyrene (TPPy) or 9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA). A preliminary study was performed in homogeneous solutions to evaluate the behaviour of the couple in different solvents [3]. Since practical applications require the upconverting system to be loaded in solid matrices we decided to synthesize upconverting micro- and nanostructured materials. We initially synthesized silica upconverting micro and nanoparticles that present the advantages of being optically transparent, biocompatible, easily achievable, and cost-effective [4]. Synthesis, optical and morphological characterization are reported.
Moreover, given the crucial requirement of the free diffusion of the dyes in the medium for the triplet–triplet annihilation based UC to occur [5], we focused our attention on polymeric oil-core capsules [6, 7].
Thus, we obtain a solid system with a solution-like behaviour, wherein the sensitizer and the emitter molecules are actually dissolved into the liquid phase and are able to interact to generate the upconversion.
We present different types of capsules loaded with the upconverting pair and we illustrate their synthesis, morphological and photophysical characterization.
The results herein reported represent a good starting point for future investigations, for example, on different types of sensitizer-emitter couples working in different spectral ranges.
[1] R. S. Khnayzer et al., Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 209–211
[2] M. Lin, Biotech. Advan., 2012, 30, 1551–1561
[3] M. Penconi, P. L. Gentili, G. Massaro, F. Elisei, F. Ortica, Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. , 2014, 13, 4
[4] L. Latterini, M. Amelia, Langmuir, 2009, 25, 4767–4773
[5] J. Zhao, S. Ji, H. Guo, RSC Advances, 2011, 1, 937–950
[6] N. Vázquez-Mera, C. Roscini, J. Hernando, D. Ruiz-Molina, Adv. Optical Mater., 2013, 1, 631–636
[7] H. N. Yow, A. F. Routh, Soft Matter, 2006, 2, 940–949
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