Optical and magnetic nanocomposites containing Fe3O4@SiO2 grafted with Eu3+ and Tb3+ complexes

Abstract

The fabrication of bifunctional nanocomposites, co-assembling photonic (RE3+) and magnetic (Fe3O4) features into single entity nanostructures is reported through a facile method, using Fe3O4 as core nanoparticles, which were coated with SiO2 shell and further grafted with Eu3+ and Tb3+ complexes. The sophisticated structural features and morphologies of the core-shell Fe3O4@SiO2-(TTA-RE-L) nanomaterials were studied by Small-angle X-ray Scattering. The core mean size , shell thickness , cluster size ξ and fractal dimension DF were determined by fitting the experimental SAXS data, corroborating through Transmission Electron Microscopy images. The DC magnetic properties at temperatures of 2 and 300 K were explored in support to the structural conclusions from SAXS and TEM analyses. The magnetic contributions of the RE3+ ions to the magnetizations of the Eu3+ and Tb3+ nanocomposites were discussed. The photoluminescence properties of the Eu3+ and Tb3+ nanocomposites based on the emission spectral data and luminescence decay curves were studied (Fig.1). The experimental intensity parameters (), lifetimes (), emission quantum efficiencies () as well as radiative (Arad) and non-radiative (Anrad) decay rates were calculated and discussed, in addition, the structural conclusions from the values of the 4f-4f intensity parameters in the case of the Eu3+ ion. These novel Eu3+ and Tb3+ nanocomposites may act as red and green emitting layers for magnetic and light converting molecular devices.