Photonic and Nanobiophotonic Properties of Luminescent Lanthanide-Doped Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Materials

摘要

Research into lanthanide-doped organic–inorganic hybrid materials emerged in the 1990s with thedevelopment of interesting materials for optics: high efficiency and stable solid-state lasers, newfiber amplifiers and sensors, devices with upconversion, fast photochromic and non-linearresponses, etc. Their interest relies on the possibility of combining properties of sol–gel hostmaterials (shaping, tunable refractive index and mechanical properties, corrosion protection,specific adhesion, etc.) and the well-known luminescence of lanthanide ions (Ln). The fastdevelopment of photonic hybrids allowed the commercial exploitation of products with new orenhanced characteristics (megajoule pulsed Nd-YAG laser, protective coatings of glasses, screensor glasswares). However, recently, Ln-hybrid nanocomposites have found new applications inbio-sensors, bio-analytics and even clinical imaging diagnostics. These applications make use ofthe fluorescence properties of lanthanides that make luminescent hybrids ideal candidates fortime-resolved fluoroimmunoassays, DNA hybridation assays, fluorescence imaging microscopy,or in vivo imaging. As a consequence, the goal of this review is twofold: (i) as a reminder of somegeneral considerations that must be taken into account to design new optically active Ln-dopednanocomposites whatever the application field, and (ii) to show the most important advancesachieved in the past years in different areas, paying special attention to bio-medical applications