Preparation and luminescence properties of Ce 3+ /Sm 3+ codoped A-Lu 2 SiO 5 @SiO 2 core-shell nanospheres

X-ray induced photodynamic therapy (X-PDT) has been applied as an effective strategy against cancer. A novel nanoscintillator A-Lu 2 SiO 5 :Ce 3+ ,Sm 3+ @SiO 2 core-shell nanosphere was fabricated and its practicability in X-PDT has been demonstrated in this work. The emission and excitation spectra of the co-doped samples were measured, and the energy transfer (ET) from Ce 3+ to Sm 3+ was investigated using the Inokuti-Hirayama (I-H) model, revealing that the dominant mechanism of ET in the sample Lu 2 SiO 5 :Ce 3+ ,Sm 3+ @SiO 2 nanospheres would be electric dipole-dipole interaction. In particular, the corresponding spectra demonstrated ET between Ce 3+ and Sm 3+ under X-ray excitation, while light yield has been estimated for a representative co-doped sample. It was concluded that the as-prepared A- Lu 2 SiO 5 :Ce 3+ ,Sm 3+ @SiO 2 core-shell nanospheres have potential applications for the simultaneous excitation of blue and red activated photosensitizers in X-PDT as material for nanoscintillators.