Projects
Recovery of scandium, yttrium and lanthanides from bauxite residue using solvent extraction with ionic liquids. KU Leuven
Secondary resources are essential to maintain the supply of critical metals in our fast-developing society. Recovery of metals from waste materials is not only important to meet the increasing demand, but also in view of a sustainable future for our planet. The rare-earth elements are listed as critical metals by the European Commission because of their essential role in, amongst others, permanent magnets for many high-tech and green ...
Hybrid lanthanide polyoxotungstate core/shell nanoparticles for fluorescence-based bioimaging Ghent University
Fluorescence bioimaging is a powerful tool in early stage diagnosis of diseases such as cancer or cardiovascular problems. Lanthanide ions have unique properties, which make them suitable for designing fluorescence bioimaging probes. Up until now mostly lanthanides, which emit in a region visible to the human eye, have been explored for this purpose. Creating lanthanide based bioimaging probes, which emit in the near-infrared (NIR) region of ...
Nanocomposite materials for highly efficient sensitized lanthanide emission Ghent University
This project aims to the realization of highly efficient near-infrared (NIR) luminescent materials
based on lanthanides (Er, Yb, Nd) for applications in modern and future ICT technology. This
proposal will enable an innovative “ybrid”approach to overcome the current severe limitations
of lanthanide organic and inorganic NIR luminescent compounds, by resorting to nanocomposite
materials where the ...
Dye-sensitized up/down conversion in lanthanide nano materials Ghent University
Inorganic lanthanide-doped nano particles decorated with organic dyes will be synthesized and optimized towards up and down conversion, to obtain state-of-the-art materials that will enable wavelength conversion of parts of the solar spectrum, in order to increase the efficiency in photovoltaic technology. Making use of lanthanide coordination chemistry, highly efficient as well as stable luminescent nano materials will be developed
Synthesis and characterization of amphiphilic lanthanide chelates as potential contrast agents for bimodal MRI and optical imaging KU Leuven
The powerful in vivo technique of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is ubiquitous in clinical diagnostics and optical imaging is becoming an emerging technique of interest. Each imaging technique has its own strengths and weaknesses, the combination of different, complementary techniques can overcome inherent limitations that are associated with one individual technique. Whereas MRI is ideal for whole body images due to its good spatial ...
Luminescent Lanthanide Doped Nanoparticles as Bimodal Contrast Agents for MRI and Optical Imaging. KU Leuven
This manuscript covers the development of five different multimodal contrast agents for MRI and optical imaging, which are all unique in their design and properties.
The first approach involves linking multiple paramagnetic gadolinium(III)-chelates based on 2-[4,7,10-tris(carboxymethyl)-1,4,7,10-tetrazacyclododec-1-yl]acetate (DOTA) ligand to the surface of NaGdF4:Yb3+,Tm3+ upconverting nanoparticles with an average particle size of 20 ...
Luminescent lanthanide MOFs Ghent University
This project deals with the design and synthesis of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that are optimized with regard to their luminescent properties. These MOFs consist of trivalent lanthanide ions that show characteristic emission in the visible or near-infrared part of the spectrum. These ions are connected through newly synthesized linker molecules to form a 3D network with superior stability.