A novel near-infrared thermometry based on thermal quenching and negative thermal quenching materials with high sensitivity and accuracy

Near-infrared (NIR) thermometry are attractive with their preeminent superiority in biological tissue. In this work, the binary near-infrared (NIR) luminescence thermometry probe is prepared from Sc2Mo3O12:Yb/Er and ZrO2:Yb/Ho powders. At elevated temperature from 310 to 580 K, the emission of Er3+ significantly enhanced in negative thermal expansion (NTE) host and the emission of Ho3+ possess thermal quenching in positive thermal expansion (PTE) host. Thus, the probe offers a unique properties of simultaneous emission enhancement and quenching in different NIR wavelengths. By fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technique, the relative thermal sensitivity of the sensor can reach a value of 4.2% K−1 higher than NIR thermometers reported to date, while the best temperature resolution is 0.33 K.