Morphology of Rare-earth (Y, Sm) Nanostructures Synthesized by the Surfactant-assembled Method

Abstract

Nanostructures such as nanorods or nanowires in various morphologies have been fabricated from yttrium oxide, nitrate, and chloride, along with samarium oxide relying on a template organized from self-assembled surfactants. It is found that the different interaction mechanism between the template and rare-earth material gives rise to the various morphologies in the nm–µm domain, under observation by scanning electronic microscopy.

Emission properties of Ln (Eu, Tb, Dy, Er)-doped Y2O3 nanoparticles synthesized by surfactant-assembly and their applications in visible color-tuning

“…YNPs were fabricated by surfactant assembly using a homogeneous precipitation method in the aqueous phase, as described in the literature [2,7] with technical modifications. Y(NO 3 ) 3 ÁnH 2 O with n % 5 (Wako, 99.9%) and the dopants Ln(NO 3 ) 3 Á6H 2 O (Ln = Tb, Eu, Dy, and Er) (Wako or Kanto, 99.5-99.95%) were used as received.…”

“…For Eu-Tb@YNP, the total amount of Eu(NO 3 ) 3 and Tb(NO 3 ) 3 was kept at 2.0 wt%, while the Eu:Tb ratio was varied. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) (0.09 mol dm À3 ) was added to the aqueous system, and the solution was stirred at 40 C. The SDS concentration was chosen to be just above 10 times of the CMC (critical micelle concentration) [7]. In this process, urea was used to adjust the pH of the solution to 9.0 AE 0.2.…”

“…In addition to carbon, which is commonly used for synthesizing nanostructures, rare earths such as Y, Yb, and Sm have been employed to prepare nanotubes [1][2][3][4], nanorods [5][6][7], and nanoparticles [8]. Recent attention to such nanostructures focuses on luminescent functions where emitting lanthanoid rare earths (Ln) are doped in nanostructure matrices and characteristic Ln properties are exploited in emitting devices.…”