Synthesis of Luminescent ZrO₂:Eu³⁺ Nanoparticles and Their Holographic Sub‐Micrometer Patterning in Polymer Composites

Abstract

Here, the facile synthesis of fluorescent ZrO2:Eu3+ nanoparticles with luminescence quantum yield of up to 8.7% that can be easily dispersed in organic solvents and utilized for the preparation of organic/inorganic volume holographic gratings is presented. The nanoparticles are prepared through a one‐step solvothermal process resulting in spherical particles with a mean size of 4 nm that were highly crystalline directly after the synthesis, without any need for calcination treatment. Detailed luminescence studies of the nanoparticles as a function of Eu3+ content demonstrate that the dopant concentration and its site symmetry play an important role in the emissive properties and lifetime of the luminescent centers. It is shown that the luminescence quantum yield of the colloidal ZrO2:Eu3+ nanoparticles increases with dopant concentration up to a critical concentration of 11 mol% while the luminescence lifetime is shortened from 1.8 to 1.4 ms. Holographic photopolymerization of suitable monomer mixtures containing the luminescent nanoparticles demonstrated the ability to inscribe volume Bragg gratings (refractive index contrast n1 up to 0.011) with light‐emissive properties, evidencing the high suitability of this approach for the fabrication of tailored nanomaterials for elaborate and demanding applications.

Effects of ZnO quantum dots on the photostability of acrylate photopolymers used as recording materials

“…However, in order to develop photosensitive materials with advanced performance (higher ∆n), the research was oriented towards phototopolymers doped with dispersed nanoparticles during the last decades. Scientists displayed lots of imagination in investigating this approach; thus TiO 2 [3][4][5][6], SiO 2 [6][7][8][9][10], ZrO 2 [6,[11][12][13], ZrO 2 :Eu 3+ [14], LaPO 4 :Ce 3+ , Tb 3+ [15], LaPO 4 :Tb 3+ nanorods [16], silver [17,18] and gold nanoparticles [19], CdSe [20], CdSe/ZnS [21,22] and ZnO quantum dots (QDs) [23] were used more or less successfully. During the course of the recording process, nanoparticles were forced to diffuse away from the constructive to the destructive interference regions of the interference pattern [7,11,[15][16][17][18][19]21,24].…”

Sensitization and protection of Eu3+ luminescence by CeO2 in nano-composite

“…In the last two decades, rare earth (RE) ions doped oxide nanophosphors have attracted much attention due to their unique optical properties, such as long fluorescent lifetime, large Stokes shift and combination of high luminescence efficiency and good photochemical stability [1]. These desirable characteristics make them potentially applicable in the industry fields of fluorescence lamps, biological labels, field emission displays and so on [2][3][4].…”

Cellulose fibers modified by Eu3+-doped yttria-stabilized zirconia nanoparticles

“…Nanocrystalline materials have found applications in various fields of engineering (Kulpinski 2007). Photoactive inorganic complexes based on trivalent rare-earth ions and metal oxides have been successfully incorporated into polymer matrices such as PUR (Ryszkowska et al 2007;Liu et al 2008), PMMA, PLA (Sheng et al 2011), and PEO (Ninjbadgar et al 2009). Also, europium ions, complexes containing ions of this rare earth metal, and polymers doped with it, have been investigated and reported in the literature (Yakimanskii et al 2008;Ribeiro et al 1998;Mardaleishvili et al 2009;Rybaltovskii et al 2009).…”