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Rare-Earth-Based Composite and Nanostructured Materials with Advanced Tailored Functionalities

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Composites".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 2784

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Optical and Vibrational Spectroscopy Lab, Department of Engineering for Innovation Medicine, University of Verona, Ca' Vignal 2, Strada Le Grazie 15, 37134 Verona, Italy
Interests: nanostructured materials; rare-earth ions; luminescent materials; optical films and coatings; materials for energy applications; solar cells; lighting
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Guest Editor
Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30172 Venezia, Mestre, Italy
Interests: nanostructured materials; luminescent materials; glass and ceramics; nanocomposite glasses; lanthanide ions; noble metal nanoparticles; photonic and optical applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, via Torino 155, 30170 Venezia-Mestre, Italy
Interests: nanostructured materials; luminescence; phosphors; nanoparticles; optical thermal sensors; stimuli-responsive materials; ceramics; lanthanide ions; transition metal ions; metal oxide nanoparticles; photonic applications

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the last decades, rare-earth doped materials acquired a key role in the development of systems for light generation, guiding, manipulation and detection. This is mainly due to the intrinsic, unique optical properties exhibited by rare earth ions when embedded in suitable host matrices.

In addition to the typical applications in telecommunication and photonics, rare-earth-based materials have also been developed for more tailored uses, such as phosphors for decorative lighting, remote temperature sensors for bioimaging, spectral modifiers for photovoltaic solar cells, and anti-counterfeiting markers in manufacturing and in cultural heritage preservation.

The possibility of achieving these features also goes through the design of novel material architectures that can activate or enhance specific rare-earth optical properties. In this regard, intense research activity has been undertaken to develop rare-earth-based composite and nanostructured systems, spanning from inorganic/organic hybrid materials to core–shell structures, from nanoparticle-embedded films to loaded porous matrices.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art and future perspectives for rare-earth based optical materials with peculiar structural architectures, which are of great interest for the photonic and optoelectronic fields as well as for intriguing tailored applications.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to: novel composite systems and preparation methods, emerging applications for rare-earth-based materials, advanced rare earth optical properties, novel tools and models for optical material characterization.

Dr. Francesco Enrichi
Prof. Dr. Enrico Trave
Dr. Michele Back
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Rare-earth doped materials
  • Luminescence and optical properties
  • Composite materials
  • Advanced optical functionalities
  • Nano-thermometry
  • Spectral modification
  • Micro- and nano-sized phosphors

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 2231 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Size and Thermal Treatment on the Photoluminescent Properties of Europium-Doped SiO2 Nanoparticles Prepared in One Pot by Sol-Gel
by Hussein Fneich, Nathalie Gaumer, Stéphane Chaussedent, Ahmad Mehdi and Wilfried Blanc
Materials 2021, 14(7), 1607; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14071607 - 25 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2096
Abstract
Europium (Eu)-doped silica nanoparticles have attracted great interest for different applications, in particular in biomedicine as biosensors or for tissue regeneration. Sol-gel is the most common process used to prepare those particles, with size varying from tens to hundreds of nanometers. In this [...] Read more.
Europium (Eu)-doped silica nanoparticles have attracted great interest for different applications, in particular in biomedicine as biosensors or for tissue regeneration. Sol-gel is the most common process used to prepare those particles, with size varying from tens to hundreds of nanometers. In this article, we focus our attention on the comparison between two commonly used sol-gel derived methods: reverse microemulsion (for particles smaller than 100 nm) and Stöber method (for particles larger than 100 nm). Europium concentration was varied between 0.2 and 1 mol%, and the nanoparticle diameters were 10, 50 and 100 nm. The link between the local environment of europium ions and their optical properties was investigated and discussed. Using Transmission Electron Microscopy, nitrogen sorption, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-Transform Infra-Red and pulsed doubled Nd:YAG laser, we confirmed that fluorescence lifetime was improved by thermal treatment at 900 °C due to the elimination of aqueous environment and modification of structure disorder. The size of nanoparticles, the amount of europium and the thermal treatment of obtained materials influence the emission spectra and the decay curves of Eu3+. Full article
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