Solar-Pumping Upconversion of Interfacial Coordination Nanoparticles

An interfacial coordination nanoparticle successfully exhibited an upconversion blue emission excited by very low-power light irradiation, such as sunlight. The interfacial complex was composed of Yb ions and indigo dye, which formed a nano-ordered thin shell layer on a Tm2O3 nanoparticle. At the surface of the Tm2O3 particle, the indigo dye can be excited by non-laser excitation at 640 nm, following the intramolecular energy transfer from the indigo dye to the Yb ions. Additionally, the excitation energy of the Yb ion was upconverted to the blue emission of the Tm ion at 475 nm. This upconversion blue emission was achieved by excitation with a CW Xe lamp at an excitation power of 0.14 mW/cm2, which is significantly lower than the solar irradiation power of 1.4 mW/cm2 at 640 ± 5 nm.