Significant Increment of Photoluminescence Quantum Yield by Efficiently Prohibiting Fluorescence Quenching in Erbium(III) Organic Complexes

A systematic investigation and comparison of the photoluminescence (PL) quantum yields of six erbium(III) organic complexes are reported. We demonstrated that the PL quantum yield could be significantly improved by getting rid of OH and CH groups in the complexes. Moreover, perfluooctanoic acid with neither OH nor CH groups was used as a ligand to form complex with Er³⁺. The quantum yield of the newly synthesized erbium(III) complex was found to be as high as 2%, 100 times higher than ever reported.