Ultrasonic Approach for Formation of Erbium Oxide Nanoparticles With Variable Geometries

Darya Radziuk, André Skirtach, Andre Gessner, Michael U Kumke, Wei Zhang, Helmuth Möhwald, Dmitry Shchukin

Langmuir. 2011 Dec 6;27(23):14472-80.

PMID: 22022886

Abstract:

Ultrasound (20 kHz, 29 W·cm(-2)) is employed to form three types of erbium oxide nanoparticles in the presence of multiwalled carbon nanotubes as a template material in water. The nanoparticles are (i) erbium carboxioxide nanoparticles deposited on the external walls of multiwalled carbon nanotubes and Er(2)O(3) in the bulk with (ii) hexagonal and (iii) spherical geometries. Each type of ultrasonically formed nanoparticle reveals Er(3+) photoluminescence from crystal lattice. The main advantage of the erbium carboxioxide nanoparticles on the carbon nanotubes is the electromagnetic emission in the visible region, which is new and not examined up to the present date. On the other hand, the photoluminescence of hexagonal erbium oxide nanoparticles is long-lived (μs) and enables the higher energy transition ((4)S(3/2)-(4)I(15/2)), which is not observed for spherical nanoparticles. Our work is unique because it combines for the first time spectroscopy of Er(3+) electronic transitions in the host crystal lattices of nanoparticles with the geometry established by ultrasound in aqueous solution of carbon nanotubes employed as a template material. The work can be of great interest for "green" chemistry synthesis of photoluminescent nanoparticles in water.

Chemicals Related in the Paper:

Catalog Number	Product Name	Structure	CAS Number	Price
AP12061164-A	Erbium(III) oxide		12061-16-4	Price