Rapid synthesis of single-crystalline TbF3 with novel nanostructure via ultrasound irradiation

Terbium fluoride (TbF3) nanopeanut has been successfully synthesized via a mild sonochemical route from an aqueous solution of terbium nitrate and fluoroborate without any template or organic additive. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) spectra were utilized to characterize the synthesized samples. The morphologies and optical properties of the obtained TbF3 nanopeanut can be tuned by ultrasound irradiation as well as the fluoride source. The prepared TbF3 nanopeanut shows extraordinarily high room temperature photoluminescence intensity comparing to the products prepared by stirring. The possible formation mechanism is proposed in this paper. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.