Novel Synthesis and Characterization of Lanthanum oxide Nanoparticles from Nano-sized Lanthanum(III) Compound

A new nano-sized La (III) compound, La[(N2H4)2{C10H6(3-O)(2-COO)}1.5].H2O (X), was synthesized by the sonochemical method and characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and elemental analyses. Lanthanum oxide nanoparticles were prepared by direct thermal decomposition of nanostructures in a programmable furnace up to 800 ℃ in ambient atmosphere. The structural characterization was done by powder XRD, and morphological observations by FESEM revealed that the quasi-spherical La2O3 nanoparticles obtained are well crystallized and uniform in both morphology and particle size. The study demonstrates that supramolecular compounds may be suitable precursors for the simple one-pot preparation of nanoscale metal oxide materials with different morphologies.