Abstract
Bifunctional monodispersed Fe3O4 particles coated with an ultrathin Y2O3:Tb3+ shell layer were fabricated using a facile urea-based homogeneous precipitation method. The obtained composite particles were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), quantum design vibrating sample magnetometry, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. TEM revealed uniform spherical core-shell-structured composites ranging in size from 306 to 330 nm with a shell thickness of approximately 25 nm. PL spectroscopy confirmed that the synthesized composites displayed a strong eye-visible green light emission. Magnetic measurements indicated that the composite particles obtained also exhibited strong superparamagnetic behavior at room temperature. Therefore, the inner Fe3O4 core and outer Y2O3:Tb3+ shell layer endow the composites with both robust magnetic properties and strong eye-visible luminescent properties. These composite materials have potential use in magnetic targeting and bioseparation, simultaneously coupled with luminescent imaging.
Highlights
In modern materials science, considerable attention has been paid to the precise manipulation and development of new user-friendly methods for fabricating a range of inorganic systems in the nanoscale region
This paper proposes a facile strategy for the fabrication of bimodal nanocomposites using Fe3O4 spheres as a core and a thin Y2O3:Tb3+ layer phosphor coating as the shell structure
Bifunctional Fe3O4@Y2O3:Tb3+ composite particles with a core-shell structure were obtained after thermal treatment at 700°C for 1 h
Summary
Considerable attention has been paid to the precise manipulation and development of new user-friendly methods for fabricating a range of inorganic systems in the nanoscale region. Among these inorganic systems, bifunctional magnetic-luminescent composites are attractive because of their unique magnetic and luminescent properties in combination in a single particle. Unique paramagnetic properties of iron oxides have been studied intensively for many technological applications, such as jet printing, magnetic storage media, MRI contrast enhancement, hyperthermia treatment, targeted drug delivery, and cell separation [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. The formation of core-shell structures is followed conventionally by an encapsulation
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