Efficient synthesis of lithium rare-earth tetrafluoride nanocrystals via a continuous flow method

• Published in: Nano research Vol. 13; no. 10; pp. 2837 - 2846
• Main Authors: Sui, Jinsong, Yan, Junyu, Wang, Kai, Luo, Guangsheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Tsinghua University Press 01.10.2020
• Subjects: Atomic/Molecular Structure and Spectra; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Continuous flow; Crystals; Erbium; Lithium; Lithium fluoride; Materials Science; Nanocrystals; Nanotechnology; Rare earth elements; Reaction time; Reactors; Research Article; Silicon carbide; Strong interactions (field theory); Trioctylamine; Upconversion; Ytterbium; silicon carbide reactor; upconversion illuminant nanocyrstal; lithium rare earth tetrafluoride; flow chemistry
• ISSN: 1998-0124; 1998-0000
• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-2938-y

As an important upconversion illuminant material, LiREF 4 nanocrystals were efficiently synthesized in a continuous reactor with the assistant of a new precursor solution. The employed trioctylamine solvent in the solution had a strong interaction with HF, and helped to avoid the generation of unnecessary solid components as LiF and NH 4 REF 4 during the reaction. A silicon carbide reactor was developed to carry out the synthesis reaction, where LiYF 4 :Yb,Er/Ho/Tm quickly nucleated in 5 min at 300 °C. The reaction time to successfully prepare 15 nm sized nanocrystals was less than 30 min, and the space-time yield of the flow synthesis method was 14.8 times that of a control group batch reaction. The prepared nanocrystals had a strong illuminant ability, which could find its use in the area of security mark printing.