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

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Abstract

As an important upconversion illuminant material, LiREF4 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 NH4REF4 during the reaction. A silicon carbide reactor was developed to carry out the synthesis reaction, where LiYF4: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.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U1607118), and also appreciated the technical support from Shandong JINDE new material Co., Ltd. in preparing the SiC reactor.

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  1. The State Key Lab of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Jinsong Sui, Junyu Yan, Kai Wang & Guangsheng Luo

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  1. Jinsong Sui
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Correspondence to Kai Wang.

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

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Sui, J., Yan, J., Wang, K. et al. Efficient synthesis of lithium rare-earth tetrafluoride nanocrystals via a continuous flow method. Nano Res. 13, 2837–2846 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2938-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2938-y

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