Luminescent Nanostructures: Controlling Nanoscale Architecture for Multifunctionality

近年来，无论是从基本观点还是从其潜在的应用领域，包括健康、食品、安全、能源和环境，功能性发光纳米材料都引起了人们的极大兴趣。我们对发光纳米材料世界的基本理解，从它们的生长和结构，到它们在外源刺激后的行为，正在导致实现具有从未观察到的特性的工程纳米系统，或其组合。然而，我们非常需要通过量身定制的研究来指导我们的基本理解，以解决明确的问题并开发新的应用。该项目旨在弥合这一鸿沟，以便从新设计的发光纳米结构中收集到的信息可以用于对加拿大重要的创新应用。在寻找新的发光纳米材料的过程中，稀土掺杂纳米结构由于其迷人和多功能的光学特性而处于最前沿。鉴于这种无可争议的兴趣，我已经制定了一个强有力的研究计划，在INRS-EMT研究功能发光纳米结构，特别关注稀土掺杂纳米颗粒。在这个发现基金的框架内，我的目标是开发新的稀土掺杂纳米结构，以揭示结构与发光之间的基本关系。这种理解将引导我们走向具有新的或增强的发光特性的工程纳米结构，以实现最终的应用集成。

Functional luminescent nanomaterials have garnered significant interest in recent years from both a fundamental viewpoint and for their potential applications spanning several sectors including health, food, safety, energy, and environment. Our fundamental understanding of the luminescent nanomaterials world, from their growth and structure, to their behavior after exogenous stimulation, is leading to the realization of engineered nanosystems with properties, or a combination thereof, never before observed. There exists, however, a great need to guide our basic understanding with tailored research to address explicit problems and to develop new applications. This program seeks to bridge this divide such that the information gleaned from newly engineered luminescent nanostructures can be exploited for innovative applications of importance to Canada. In the search for new luminescent nanomaterials, rare earth doped nanostructures are at the cutting edge due to their fascinating and versatile optical properties. Given this indisputable interest, I have developed a vigorous research program to investigate functional luminescent nanostructures at INRS-EMT with a particular focus on rare earth doped nanoparticles. In the framework of this Discovery Grant, my goal is to develop new rare earth doped nanostructures to unravel the basic relationships between structure and luminescence. This understanding will guide us towards engineering nanoarchitectures with new or enhanced luminescence properties for ultimate application integration. Specifically, over the course of the next five years, I will: (i) study new nanoarchitectures with controlled rare earth doping to mitigate and harness energy transfer processes amongst rare earth ions to decouple individual luminescence properties; (ii) Develop new nanoplatforms capable of simultaneously delivering optically generated heat and real-time temperature detection; (iii) Engineer hybrid nanostructures through the rational combination of rare earth doped nanostructures with other diverse near-infrared perturbable nanomaterials. This ambitious research program will result in innovative advances in the engineering of new functional luminescent nanostructures paving the way for the development of tangible applications consistent with the immediate needs of Canadian society, train highly qualified personnel to address the scientific and technological requirements of academia and industry, and underpin Canada's position of leadership in Advanced Materials research, in particular nanomaterials research and development through the realization of an emerging technology platform.