Impact of surface coating on morphological, optical and photoluminescence properties of YF3:Tb3+ nanoparticles

Facile polyol and sol-gel Stober methods were used for synthesis of YF3:Tb+ (core), YF3:Tb+@LaF3 (core/shell) and YF3:Tb+@LaF3@SiO2 (core/shell/SiO2) nanoparticles (NPs). We investigated the crystalinity, morphology, surface chemistry, optical absorption and luminescence properties of these core and core/shell nanoparticles.