@unpublished{pittir20008,
           month = {January},
           title = {Lanthanide Sensitization in II-VI Semiconductor Nanoparticles},
          author = {Robin Sloan},
            year = {2014},
        keywords = {Nanoparticles, doped nanoparticles, lanthanides, luminescent nanoparticle},
             url = {http://d-scholarship-dev.library.pitt.edu/20008/},
        abstract = {As nanotechnology continues to find its way into medical treatments, it is important to understand how to develop a bright imaging agent that will be more robust than current organic fluorophores. Key characteristics of inorganic lanthanide based materials, which are superior to current organic reporters, are their resistance to photobleaching, narrow emission bands, and long luminescent lifetimes; however their small radiative rate requires that they be sensitized. There are also multiple lanthanides that emit in the visible and near infrared region, allowing multiplex assays to be developed. Based on a model proposed by Mukherjee, et al.,1 lanthanide emission is expected to show a dependence on the bandgap of the host nanoparticle material. The goal of this study was to examine this prediction. This study uses absorbance to determine the size and band gap of the host nanoparticles and uses XPS, EDS, and ICP to determine the dopant concentration. Using these measurements, the integrated time-gated luminescence is compared to the dopant percentage and bandgap of the nanoparticles. In agreement with the model, large bandgap materials are able to sensitize the terbium more efficiently, yielding brighter luminescence which is ideal for an imaging agent.}
}