Hydrothermal synthesis of lanthanide (hydr)oxide micro/nanorods in presence of tetrabutylammonium hydroxide

Abstract

Uniform and well-defined lanthanide hydroxide and oxide micro/nanorods Ln(OH)3 (Ln=La, Pr, Sm, Eu, Gd, Er) and Gd(OH)3:Eu3+, Gd2O3:Eu3+ were successfully synthesized through a green and facile hydrothermal method. Tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAH) and lanthanide nitrides were used as the hydrothermal precursors without the addition of any templates/surfactants. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The result demonstrated that lanthanide hydroxide micro/nanorods with 20–80 nm in diameter and 50–450 in length were obtained. The size of the Ln(OH)3 (Ln=La, Pr, Sm, Eu, Gd, Er) rods increased with the increase of the atomic number. The size of the Gd(OH)3:Eu3+ rods decreased with the increase of pH value by modulating the amount of the TBAH solution. The as-formed product via the hydrothermal process, Gd(OH)3:Eu3+, could be transformed to Gd2O3:Eu3+ with the same morphology and a slight shrinking in size after a post annealing process. It is a facial method to synthesize photoluminescent nanomaterial of Gd2O3:Eu3+. The Gd2O3:Eu3+ microrods exhibited strong red emission corresponding to 5D0→7F2 transition (610 nm) of Eu3+ under UV light excitation (257 nm).