Simultaneous structure and luminescence property control of barium carbonate nanocrystals through small amount of lanthanide doping

Rare earth doping has been widely applied in many functional nanomaterials with desirable properties and functions, which would have a significant effect on the growth process of the materials. However, the controlling strategy is limited into high concentration of lanthanide doping, which produces concentration quenching of the lanthanide ion luminescence with an increase in the Ln(3+) concentration, resulting in lowering the fluorescence quantum yield of lanthanide ion. Herein, for the first time, we demonstrate simultaneous control of the structures and luminescence properties of BaCO3 nanocrystals via a small amount of Tb3+ doping strategy. In fact, Tb3+ would partially occupy Ba2+ sites, resulting in the changes to the structures of the BaCO3 nanocrystals, which is primarily determined by charge modulation, including the contributions from the surfaces of crystal nuclei and building blocks. These structurally modified nanocrystals exhibit tunable luminescence properties, thus emerging as potential candidates for photonic devices such as light-emitting diodes and color displays. (C) 2017 Science China Press. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science China Press. All rights reserved.

稀土掺杂已广泛应用于许多具有理想性能和功能的功能性纳米材料中，这会对材料的生长过程产生重大影响。然而，控制策略局限于高浓度的镧系元素掺杂，随着Ln(3+)浓度的增加，这会导致镧系离子发光的浓度猝灭，从而降低镧系离子的荧光量子产率。在此，我们首次通过少量Tb3+掺杂策略展示了对BaCO3纳米晶体结构和发光性能的同时控制。事实上，Tb3+会部分占据Ba2+位点，导致BaCO3纳米晶体结构发生变化，这主要由电荷调制决定，包括晶核和结构单元表面的贡献。这些结构经过修饰的纳米晶体呈现出可调的发光性能，因此成为发光二极管和彩色显示器等光电器件的潜在候选材料。(C) 2017中国科学出版社。由爱思唯尔出版集团和中国科学出版社出版。版权所有。