Turning On the Near-Infrared Photoluminescence of Erbium Metallofullerenes by Covalent Modification

The photoluminescence of lanthanide ions inside fullerenes is usually very weak due to the quenching effect of the fullerene cage. In the case of Er@C82, the near-infrared emission from the Er3+ ion is completely quenched by the C82 fullerene cage. It remains challenging to turn on the photoluminescence of Er@C82 and other monometallofullerenes. In this work, we adopt a covalent modification strategy to alter the electronic structure of the...