Synthesis, structural and morphological characterization and photoluminescence study of Y0.9Er0.1−xYbxVO4 materials

Superparamagnetic and Light-Emitting Bifunctional Nanocomposites of Iron Oxide and Erbium or Thulium Doped Yttrium Orthovanadate

“…Bifunctional materials that combine magnetic and optical properties in a single entity are attracting growing interest due to their potential application in the biomedicine field, either as drug delivery systems, fluorescent thermometers in photothermal therapy or in bioimaging or hyperthermia applications [1][2][3][4][5][6]. For these purposes, materials based on rare earth-doped luminescent nanoparticles [4,[6][7][8] and/or superparamagnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles are currently being synthesized and studied [6,[9][10][11].…”

“…The β-NaYF 4 compound is one of the most widely used inorganic host lattices [4,5]. Its low phonon energy (∼350 cm −1 ) provides a low energy loss due to non-radiative transitions and consequently, the light emission is enhanced [5].…”

“…Among them, we are studying yttrium orthovanadate (YVO 4 ) doped with lanthanide ions. This host matrix has good mechanical and thermal properties [1,4,18] and, despite its high phonon energy (700-900 cm −1 ), light emission from lanthanide ions (Ln 3+ ) is very efficient [4,19,20]. The VO 4 3groups display strong UV light absorption, but they do not show light emission because the absorbed energy is dissipated non-radiatively through quenching sites [4,21].…”

“…This host matrix has good mechanical and thermal properties [1,4,18] and, despite its high phonon energy (700-900 cm −1 ), light emission from lanthanide ions (Ln 3+ ) is very efficient [4,19,20]. The VO 4 3groups display strong UV light absorption, but they do not show light emission because the absorbed energy is dissipated non-radiatively through quenching sites [4,21]. However, lanthanide ions show light emission due to 4f-4f and 4f-5d electronic transitions, so the host lattice can efficiently absorb radiation and then non-radiatively transfer it to Ln 3+ ions [22,23].…”

“…Among all methods used to obtain nanoparticles, the wet chemistry methods that involve low temperatures and short reaction times highlight for their mild reaction conditions. Some of these methods are hydrothermal [4,28], sol-gel [4], coprecipitation [9] or microemulsion [23]. The use of one method or another depends on whether the samples to be obtained are easily oxidizable, something that often happens when iron oxide samples are prepared.…”