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Updated: May 21, 2025
Integrating a Triplet-triplet Annihilation Up-conversion System to Enhance Dye-sensitized Solar Cell Response to Sub-bandgap Light
Published on: September 12, 2014
Highly Effective Near-Infrared to Blue Triplet-Triplet Annihilation Upconversion Nanoparticles for Reversible
Yi Peng1, Jia-Yao Li1, Fang Qi1
1Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Near-infrared (NIR) to blue triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) shows unique applications in optogenetics, photocaging, and stereoscopic three-dimensional printing, etc. Here, we disclose a unique strategy that narrowed the energy gap between the triplet states of the NIR photosensitizer and annihilator, with the aim of maximally suppressing the photoexcitation energy loss during TET. Hence, we produced a NIR-to-blue TTA-UC pair that exhibited an exceptionally large anti-Stokes shift (0.76 eV) and achieved a record upconversion quantum yield (15.5%, out of 50%). We further prepared for the first time small, water-dispersed, oxygen-resistant upconversion nanoparticles with an upconversion quantum yield of up to 1.8%. Such upconverted nanoparticles were successfully utilized as NIR-responsive photocatalysts for the reversible transformation of enzyme cofactor NAD+/NADH in a photobiocatalytic system in air-saturated aqueous solutions.
