Study of lanthanide doped zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized via a sonochemical method

In this work, lanthanide doped zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized in room-temperature ionic liquid via a sonochemical method have been studied. Firstly, the cavitation bubble temperatures in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (ImPF(6)) have been estimated by the methyl radical recombination method. The temperatures measured in ImPF6 are in the range of 3000-4000 K. Secondly, a facile method has been proposed to prepare lanthanide (III) doped zinc oxide nanoparticles in ImPF(6) via an ultrasonic irradiation. The nanomaterials are studied by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, photoacoustic and luminescence techniques. The results show that the relaxation processes of the samples depend strongly on the lanthanide doping. Moreover, a mechanism is proposed to interpret the formation of lanthanide (III) doped zinc oxide nanoparticles in the ImPF(6) upon ultrasonic irradiation.