Rare Earth Fluorides Nanowires/Nanorods Derived from Hydroxides: Hydrothermal Synthesis and Luminescence Properties

In this paper, we reported the synthesis of nearly monodisperse and well-defined one-dimensional (1D) rare earth fluoride (β-NaREF 4 ) (RE = Y, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, and Ho) nanowires/nanorods by in situ acid corrosion and an ion exchange approach using RE(OH) 3 as precursors via a facile hydrothermal route. X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy were used to characterize the samples. The results show that the as-prepared rare earth fluoride (β-NaREF 4 ) nanowires/nanorods preserve the basic morphology of the initial RE(OH) 3 precursors. The possible formation mechanism for β-NaREF 4 nanowires/nanorods is presented in detail. Additionally, we investigated the PL properties of Eu 3+ and Tb 3+ doped down-conversion (DC) as well as Yb 3+ /Er 3+ and Yb 3+ /Tm 3+ codoped up-conversion (UC) luminescence properties in β-NaYF 4 host lattices.