Evaluation of Rare-earth Sesquioxides Nanoparticles as a Bottom-up Strategy Toward the Formation of Functional Structures

Abstract

Background: The strategy to form functional structures based on powder technology relies on the concept of nanoparticles characteristics. Rare-earth sesquioxides (RE2O3; RE as Y, Tm, Eu) exhibit remarkable properties, and their fields of application include energy, astronomy, environmental, medical, information technology, industry, and materials science. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the characteristics of RE2O3 nanoparticles as a bottom-up strategy to form functional materials for radiation dosimetry. Methods: The RE2O3 nanoparticles were characterized by the following techniques: XRD, SEM, PCS, FTIR, ICP, EPR, and zeta potential. Results: All RE2O3 samples exhibited cubic C-type structure in accordance with the sesquioxide diagram, chemical composition over 99.9 %, monomodal mean particle size distribution, in which d50 value was inferior to 130 nm. Among all samples, only yttrium oxide exhibited an EPR signal, in which the most intense peak was recorded at 358mT and g 1.9701. Conclusion: Evaluating nanoparticle characteristics is extremely important by considering a bottom-up strategy to form functional materials. The RE2O3 nanoparticles exhibit promising characteristics for application in radiation dosimetry.