Physical chemical aspects of lanthanide-based nanoparticles: crystal structure, cation exchange, architecture, and ion distribution as well as their utilization as multifunctional nanoparticles.
Date
2011-12-12
Authors
Dong, Cunhai
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Abstract
Lanthanide-based nanoparticles are of interest for optical displays, catalysis, telecommunication, bio-imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, multimodal imaging, etc. These applications are possible partly because the preparation of lanthanide-based nanoparticles has made tremendous progress. Now, nanoparticles are routinely being made with a good control over size, crystal phase and even shape. Despite the achievements, little attention is given to the fundamental physical chemistry aspects, such as crystal structure, architecture, cation exchange, etc. The results of the study on the crystal structures of LnF3 nanoparticles show that the middle GdF3 and EuF3 nanoparticles have two crystal phases, which has then been tuned by doping with La3+ ions. However, the required doping level is very different from the bulk. While the results for the bulk are well explained by thermodynamic calculations, kinetics is actually responsible for the results of the undoped and doped GdF3 and EuF3 nanoparticles. The attempt to make LnF3 core-shell nanoparticles led to the finding of cation exchange, a phenomenon that upon exposure of LnF3 nanoparticles to an aqueous solution containing Ln3+ ions, the Ln3+ ions in the nanoparticles are replaced by the Ln3+ ions in the solution. The consequence of the cation exchange is that LnF3 core-shell nanoparticles are unlikely to form in aqueous media using a core-shell synthesis procedure. It has also been verified that nanoparticles synthesized using an alloy procedure do not always have an alloy structure. This means that the core-shell and alloy structure of nanoparticles in the literature may not be true. The investigation of the architecture of nanoparticles synthesized in aqueous media is extended to those synthesized in organic media. The dopant ion distribution in NaGdF4 nanoparticles has been examined. It has been found that they don’t have the generally assumed statistical dopant distribution. Instead, they have a gradient structure with one type of Ln3+ ions more concentrated towards the center and the other type more concentrated towards the surface of the nanoparticles. With the understanding of these physical insights, lanthanide-based core-shell nanoparticles are prepared using the cation exchange. These core-shell nanoparticles containing a photoluminscent core and a paramagnetic shell are promising candidates for multimodal imaging.
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Keywords
lanthanide-based nanoparticles, core-shell structure, non-core-shell, cation exchange, crystal structure, ion distribution, magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent, upconversion nanoparticles, synthesis and characterization, synchrotron radiation X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, multifunctional nanoparticles