Novel ionic liquid-assisted hydrothermal method for the assembly of luminescent lanthanide fluorides with controllable morphologies

An amphiphilic ionic liquid (diallyldimethylammonium tetrafluoroborate) assisted hydrothermal method has been applied for the synthesis of lanthanide fluoride nanoparticles. It has been carried out under mild conditions and large scale amounts of samples can be facilely achieved by this efficient way. Luminescence features of the phosphors were studied by steady state fluorescence and the samples could present striking 5D0 → 7F1 transition with orange-red color, suggesting that Eu3 + ions are located in the crystal lattice with inversion symmetry. The particle size distribution was investigated by scanning electron microscope and the results showed that different microstructures such as nano-rods and nanoplates were obtained.