Two-dimentional photo-thermo-polimerisation of MMA with Cr3+ doped nanoheaters

Abstract

Through a wise design of materials composition and chemical architecture, modern functional nanomaterials should offer enhanced properties and multifunctional capabilities. This is why new photothermal agents are sought that not only are efficient in light-to-heat conversion but advance other functionalities such as luminescence based sensing that assure feedback control or thermal triggering / activation of (bio)chemical processes. In this work YPO4:Cr3+ nanoparticles are presented and their photothermal performance is evaluated as a function of Cr3+ ions concentration. As demonstrated, the high absorption cross-section of Cr3+ ions causes that despite the light-to-heat conversion efficiency for CrPO4 reached only 15% the temperature raises obtained with optical excitation of 4.3 kW/cm2 is 250% higher for CrPO4 compared to NaNdF4 nanoparticles. The high application potential of the presented photothermal agents was demonstrated in an experiment with dynamic photo-thermo-polymerization of MMA that can be used for 3D printing.