Chelating agent and substrate effect on hydrothermal growth of Yb3+/Er3+ doped NaYf4 film

Abstract

We report simultaneous crystal growth and deposition of upconverting Yb3+/Er3+ doped NaYF4 film (UCF) on conducting and non-conducting substrates by one-step hydrothermal method. The characteristics such as film topography, morphology, crystallographic phase and upconverting luminescence intensity were found to depend both on the chelating agent and nature of the substrate. The characteristics of the prepared films varied interestingly when either the chelating agent or the substrate was changed. The upconversion emission intensities were found to increase with decreasing film roughness. Further, current investigation demonstrated that the NaYF4 films deposited using EDTA or DTPA chelating agents on ITO substrate and EGTA chelating agent on PG substrate were more uniform and resulted in greater upconverted emission intensities. We envision plausible use of current technology in the development of affordable optical platforms for several optoelectronic applications.

Unraveling the superior role of dicarboxylic acids as surface chelators in Eu3+-doped yttrium fluorides: A systematic modulation of the crystal phases and morphologies for highly tuned optical performance

“…Despite the fact of using chelating agents, we noted that some degree of agglomeration exists (in particular, for samples with tartaric acid). From the literature, we have found several factors that might have contributed to this phenomenon: the type of chelating agent and its chemical behavior, the molar ratio of the chelating agent to Ln 3+ , the pH of the medium, the temperature and reaction time during the hydrothermal treatment that could favor that particles aggregate to reduce their surface energy, and the fluoride source [46][47][48][49]. All these remarks could lead to future more in-depth studies.…”

The role of chelating agent on the structure and up-conversion property of NaLuF4:Yb,Tm as security ink phosphor

“…Several anticounterfeiting technologies such as simple markers, plasmonic security labels, holograms and security inks have been developed during the past decades to protect against counterfeiting (Duhan et al , 2021; Jalili et al , 2018; Kaviani Darani et al , 2015; Sun et al , 2006). One of these techniques is using UC materials in suitable inks to prevent counterfeiting.…”