Method for preparing rare-earth doped fluoride nanoparticles
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorsChangzai Chi, Daniel Albert Green, Kurt Richard Mikeska, Lee A. Silverman
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Abstract
The invention is directed to a process of combining an aqueous solution of a fluoride with an aqueous solution of a host multi-valent metal salt and an aqueous solution of a salt forming a reactant mixture resulting in a precipitate of aqueously insoluble rare-earth doped multi-valent metal fluoride nanoparticles.
Claims7
A process comprising reacting aqueous solutions consisting essentially of an aqueous solution of one or more fluorides with an aqueous solution of a host multi-valent metal salt and one or more rare-earth salts to form aqueously insoluble rare-earth doped multi-valent metal fluoride nanoparticles characterized by d50<100 nanometers, the rare-earth doped multi-valent metal fluoride being characterized by an aqueous solubility of less than 0.1 g/100 g of water;
- wherein the concentrations of the solution of the one or more fluorides and the solution of the host multi-valent metal salt and the one or more rare earth salts are in stoichiometric amounts forming a rare-earth doped multi-valent metal fluoride, and the aqueous solution of one or more fluorides and the aqueous solution of a host multi-valent metal salt and the one or more rare-earth salts are independently at least 0.1 normal;
- wherein the relative concentration of the rare earth cation with respect to that of the multi-valent metal cation is in the range of 2 to 20% on a molar basis;
- and, wherein the fluoride is selected from alkali metal fluorides, ammonium fluoride, hydrogen fluoride, or mixtures thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.