On the temperature dependent photoluminescence of nanoscale LuPO4:Eu3+ and their application for bioimaging

Abstract

This work concerns a synthesis method for efficiently luminescent LuPO₄:Eu³⁺ nanoscale particles (∼100 nm) as well as their temperature (77–500 K) and time dependent photoluminescence. In addition, the incubation of these particles into cells of a human lung adenocarcinomic cell line A549 is briefly presented. This points to the application for bioimaging and detection of cancer cells in the field of medical diagnostics. The emission spectra of Eu³⁺ doped LuPO₄ nanoparticles show four [Xe]4f⁶ → [Xe]4f⁶ transition multiplets between 580 and 720 nm, which are typically for Eu³⁺ comprising luminescent materials, however the most intense one is the ⁵D₀ → ⁷F₄ (696.40 nm, 1.78 eV) transition due to the crystallographic position point symmetry D_2d of Eu³⁺ in xenotime LuPO₄. Such an Eu³⁺ spectrum is rather useful for diagnostics due to the high penetration depth of 700 nm radiation into tissue.