Mingzhen Yao

Graduation Semester and Year

2008

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Physics

Department

Physics

First Advisor

Wei Chen

Abstract

Lanthanide-doped nanoparticles have great potential as a new kind of luminescent material. In this thesis, we report the synthesis of Cerium-doped LaF3 nanoparticles in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) using chemical reaction at different temperatures. We found that the emission of nanoparticles in DMSO not only depends on reaction temperature but also reaction time. The emission of DMSO solution can be tuned by reaction time, from 490 nm to 650 nm. The formation of LaF3:Ce3+ nanoparticles has been identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The TEM results show that the average sizes of these nanoparticles are within 10 nm to 13 nm, which is consistent with the sizes we obtained from XRD measurement. The mechanisms for tunable emissions are being investigated. In most biological application, especially in vivo application, nanopartilces are required to be water soluble and biocompatible. Based on this concept, we have developed a simple chemical method for making high-quality, well-defined, water-soluble lanthanide-ions-doped LaF3 nanoparticles. All the nanoparticles we synthesized are water soluble and emit very strong luminescence.

Disciplines

Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Physics

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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