Cooperative Sensitization Upconversion in Ytterbium(III)‐Based Eosin Lake Pigments

Abstract

Materials based on organic chromophores and lanthanides able to transform low‐energy photons, specifically near‐infrared (NIR) photons, into higher energy photons to eventually lead to long‐lived sensitized emission of the dye are highly desirable. Cooperative sensitization (CS) upconversion has only been accomplished for lanthanide‐based clusters. We used here the eosin Y (EOS) dianion and Yb3+ (EOS‐Yb), and demonstrate the efficient CS emission of the dye after NIR excitation. Remarkably, the EOS dianion emission exhibits a nearly linear dependence on the EOS‐Yb concentration and a quadratic dependence on the laser power density. The emission is non‐sensitive to oxygen and its lifetime lasts about 1.76 μs and 12 μs in DMSO and DMSO‐d6, respectively. Moreover, the effect of temperature (293–363 K range) on the EOS‐Yb 1H NMR spectroscopic shifts demonstrates the reversible dynamic nature of the material.

Upconverting photons at the molecular scale with lanthanide complexes

“…The authors mixed Yb(OTf) 3 and Eosin Y to produce a material with the general constitution [Eosin Y] x [Yb] x ( x = integer). 77 This compound exhibits UC via sensitization of the Eosin YS 1 state by the Yb 2 ** state after NIR excitation ( λ ex = 980 nm). Emission from the S 1 → S 0 transition is observed at 600 nm, with an impressive calculated quantum yield of 7.2 × 10 −5 .…”