Synthesis and structure of some nano-sized rare-earth metal ions doped potassium hexacyanoferrates

• Nanosized powders of rare-earth metal-ions doped potassium hexacyanoferrate have been investigated.
• KRFe(CN)6·3H2O (with R=Y, Gd and Yb) powders were synthesized through precipitation.
• X-ray diffraction data has been analyzed with FullProf software suite.
• All samples were found to crystallize in the Orthorhombic unit-cell with Pmmm space group.
• Crystal parameters were determined and refined with FullProf.

Rare-earth ions doped potassium hexacyanoferrates (KR-HCF); with the general formula KRFe(CN)6·3H2OKRFe(CN)6·3H2O [with, R≡Y, Gd and Yb] nanoparticles were synthesized through precipitation. Characterization was done through particle-size analyzer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform infra-red (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy, and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD data was analyzed on FullProf Software Suite program and the unit-cell structure and lattice parameters of KR-HCF samples were determined from scratch and refined further. All the three KR-HCF nanoparticles seem to crystallize in the orthorhombic primitive PMMMPMMM space-group. Reasonably good agreement was found with the previously reported lattice constants of KGd-HCF and KYb-HCF orthorhombic single-crystals, except that they assume different space-groups. The observed dissimilarity of space-groups may be attributed to the different time scales involved in the synthesis process. Moreover, the crystal structure of KYFe(CN)6·3H2OKYFe(CN)6·3H2O nanoparticles is being reported for the very first time.