LAUSR

Three luminescent silica-based nanohybrids were fabricated by grafting of silylated Ru(II) and Nd/Yb(III) complexes onto mesoporous silica nanoparticles obtained by microemulsion method. The prepared nanohybrids were characterized by fourier transform-Raman spectroscopy (FT-RAMAN), solid state-nuclear magnetic ressonance (SS-NMR), high resolution-transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and scanning and transmission electron microscopy (STEM) techiniques. The chemical integrity and the grafting of all complexes inside MSNs nanopores as well as a good distribution of metal complexes onto MSNs surface were achieved for all nanohybrids. Photophysical results revealed that by monitoring the excitation on Ru(II) moieties from SiO2-RuNd and SiO2-RuYb nanohybrids, the sensitization of NIR-emitting Nd/Yb(III) ions were successfully detected via energy transfer processes. Energy transfer rates (kEnT) of 0.20x107 and 0.11x107 s-1 and efficiencies of energy transfer (EnT) of 40 and 27.5 % were obtained for SiO2-RuNd and SiO2-RuYb nanohybrids, respectively. These results confirm the preparation of promissing dual (Near infrared/visible)-emitting silica-based nanohybrids as new nanotools for applications as nanosensores and nanomarkers.