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Research Article

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

Jinsong Sui, Junyu Yan, Kai Wang( ), Guangsheng Luo
The State Key Lab of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
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Graphical Abstract

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.

Keywords

lithium rare earth tetrafluorideupconversion illuminant nanocyrstalsilicon carbide reactorflow chemistry

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Nano Research
Volume 13 Issue 10,
October 2020
Pages 2837-2846
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-2938-y
Cite this article:
Sui J, Yan J, Wang K, et al. Efficient synthesis of lithium rare-earth tetrafluoride nanocrystals via a continuous flow method. Nano Research, 2020, 13(10): 2837-2846. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2938-y
Topics:
Lithium compoundsNanocrystalsRare earths

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Received: 03 May 2020
Revised: 15 June 2020
Accepted: 16 June 2020
Published: 05 October 2020
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
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