Preparation of Rare Earth Hydroxide and Oxide Nanoparticles by Precipitation Method

A series of rare earth hydroxide and oxide nanoparticles have been prepared by precipitation method with alcohol as the dispersive and protective reagent. Transmission electron microscope (TEEM) images indicate that the particles are spherical in shape and smaller than 100 nm in size. The crystallite sizes of cubic Ln2O3 have lanthanide shrinking effect, while average crystal lattice distortion rates possess lanthanide swelling effect. The diffraction peak intensity of heavy rare earth oxide nanometer powders is remarkably stronger than that of light rare earth oxide nanometer powders. The variation of diffraction intensity with atomic number presents an inverted W type, forming a double peak structure. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrums reveal that Ln2O3 nanopowders have higher surface activity than that of ordinary Ln2O3 powders. The UV-vis spectra show that Ln-O bond of these particles is slightly blue-shifted, and its absorption intensity decreases.     

Up-conversion emission in KGd(WO4)2 single crystals triply-doped with Er/Yb/Tm, Tb/Yb/Tm and Pr/Yb/Tm ions

Triply-doped single crystals KGd(WO₄)₂:Er³⁺/Yb³⁺/Tm³⁺, KGd(WO₄)₂:Tb³⁺/Yb³⁺/Tm³⁺ and KGd(WO₄)₂:Pr³⁺/Yb³⁺/Tm³⁺ were grown by the Top Seeded Solution Growth (TSSG) method, with an aim of getting efficient up-converted multicolored luminescence, which subsequently can be used for generation of white light. Such an aim determined the choice of the triply doped compounds: excitation of the Yb³⁺ ions in the infrared spectral region is followed by red, green and blue emission from other dopants. It was shown that all these systems exhibit multicolor up-conversion fluorescence under 980 nm laser irradiation. Detailed spectroscopic studies of their absorption and luminescence spectra were performed. From the analysis of the dependence of the intensity of fluorescence on the excitation power the conclusion was made about significant role played by the host’s conduction band and other possible defects of the KGd(WO₄)₂ crystal lattice in the up-conversion processes.