Fabrication of EuF₃‐Mesocrystals in a Gel Matrix 

Abstract

Europium(III)fluoride-mesocrystals were synthesised in an organic matrix. This matrix is a gel formed by Eu 3+ -ions and a polycarboxylate/sulfonate copolymer, ACUSOL 588G. In the gel phase, the local amount of Europium-ions is very high since Eu 3+ acts as a crosslinker, and crystallization occurs upon addition of F -. Nucleated seed crystals in the gel phase grow by further ion attachment and form mesocrystals by mutual orientation of the EuF 3 -particles in the gel. We propose a dipole field as reason for this alignment and that the dipolar character of the particles originates from adsorption of the polyelectrolyte on charged crystal faces.

Control of the formation of rod-like ZnO mesocrystals and their photocatalytic properties

“…On the other hand, the detailed formation mechanisms of the mesocrystals remained to be determined. [14][15][16][17][18][19] Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a well-known wide band gap semiconductor. Both the bulk single crystal and nanocrystals have been widely studied and some of them have found practical applications in solar cells, 20 optoelectronics, 21 gas sensor devices 22 and photocatalysis.…”

Mesocrystals — Properties and Applications

“…Diagrams of the four principal possibilities are shown in Figure a–d. Only tensorial polarization forces and dipole fields (Figure b) have been confirmed, and then only in some selected model systems. − The other possibilities are still speculative.…”

A Polyol-Mediated Fluoride Ions Slow-Releasing Strategy for the Phase-Controlled Synthesis of Photofunctional Mesocrystals

“…Mesocrystals are three-dimensional (3D) order nanoparticles superstructures with unique properties and various potential applications as functional materials [35,36,37,38]. Nevertheless, the range of known mesocrystallines remains quite limited, in which few investigations to fluorine-containing compound mesocrystallines are available [39,40,41,42,43,44,45]. More recently, our group fabricated yttrium hydroxide fluoride mesocrystalline, as well as its Eu 3+ doped analogue, by means of an additive-free hydrothermal procedure, which involved the reaction of Y(NO 3 ) 3 , NaF, and NaOH aqueous solution without any organic additives [39].…”