Luminescence Studies of Pyrochlore Metal Oxide Nanomaterials

Abstract

Designing lanthanide doped luminescent materials especially nanomaterials with multifunctional applications is highly challenging and demanding. The chemistry and structure of the host materials for lanthanide ions are critical in the selection of known phosphors and in the discovery of new phosphor materials for being used for the applications. Materials with A2M2O7 pyrochlore composition recently have displayed a variety of advanced applications in solid oxide fuel cells, photocatalysis, thermographic phosphor, thermal barrier coating, X-ray scintillator, photoluminescence, and nuclear waste host, etc. In the past few years, we have focused on the studies of pyrochlore AIII 2MIV 2O7 nanoparticles (NPs, where A = trivalent heavy element ions of both lanthanides and actinides, and M = Zr4+, Hf4+, etc.) useful for solid-state lighting, X-ray scintillators, thermometry, and bioimaging. We have achieved substantial tunability of their particle size, crystal phase, and more importantly, luminescence properties. We have gained a clear understanding of the influences of synthesis conditions, particle morphology and composition on their photoluminescence and radioluminescence. The tunable luminescence properties of these lanthanide doped pyrochlore NPs indicate their great application potentials in solid-state lighting and multicolor luminescence devices.