Assessing the Applicability of Lanthanide-Based Upconverting Nanoparticles for Optically Monitoring Cement Hydration and Tagging Building Materials

Chemically stable, lanthanide-based photon upconversion micro- and nanoparticles (UCNPs) with their characteristic multicolor emission bands in the ultraviolet (UV), visible (vis), near-infrared (NIR), and short-wave infrared (SWIR) are promising optical reporters and barcoding tags. To assess the applicability of UCNPs for the monitoring of early stage cement hydration processes and as authentication tags for cementitious materials, we screened the evolution of the luminescence of self-made core-only NaYF₄:Yb,Er UCNPs and commercial μm-sized Y₂O₂S:Yb,Er particles during the first stages of cement hydration, which largely determines the future properties of the hardened material. Parameters explored from the UCNP side included particle size, morphology, surface chemistry or coating, luminescence properties, and concentration in different cement mixtures. From the cement side, the influence of the mineral composition of the cement matrix was representatively examined for ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and its constituents tricalcium aluminate (C3A), tricalcium silicate (C3S), and gypsum at different water to cement ratios. Based on reflection and luminescence measurements, enabling online monitoring, which were complemented by XRD and isothermal heat-flow calorimetric measurements to determine whether the incorporation of these particles could impair cement hydration processes, well suited lanthanide particle reporters could be identified as well as application conditions. In addition, thereby the reporter influence on cement hydration kinetics could be minimized while still preserving a high level of information content. The best performance for the luminescence probing of changes during early stage cement hydration processes was observed for 25 nm-sized oleate (OA)-coated UCNPs added in a concentration of 0.1 wt %. Higher UCNP amounts of 1.0 wt % delayed cement hydration processes size- and surface coating-specifically in the first 24 h. Subsequent luminescence stability screening studies performed over a period of about one year support the applicability of UCNPs as optical authentication tags for construction materials.