A facile hydrothermal approach to the synthesis of nanoscale rare earth hydroxides

Chengyin Li; Hui Liu; Jun Yang

doi:10.1186/s11671-015-0850-2

A facile hydrothermal approach to the synthesis of nanoscale rare earth hydroxides

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2015 Mar 19:10:144. doi: 10.1186/s11671-015-0850-2. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Chengyin Li¹, Hui Liu², Jun Yang²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China ; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing, 100049 China.
² State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China.

Abstract

Nanosized rare earth (RE) hydroxides including La(OH)3, Nd(OH)3, Pr(OH)3, Sm(OH)3, Gd(OH)3, and Er(OH)3 with rod-like morphology are fabricated via a convenient hydrothermal approach. This strategy calls for the first preparation of metal complexes between RE precursors and dodecylamine (DDA) in water/ethanol mixture at room temperature and subsequent thermal decomposition at elevated temperature. The influence of reaction time and water/ethanol volume ratios on the morphology and size of as-prepared RE hydroxides are investigated. CeO2 nanoparticles with spherical shape could be directly obtained by hydrothermal treatment of complexes formed between Ce precursors and DDA. In addition, by further calcinating the RE hydroxides at high temperature in air, RE oxide nanorods could be readily produced.

Keywords: Hydrothermal; Hydroxide; Nanorod; Oxide; Rare earth.