Structural and Electronic Characterization Through Spectroscopy Analysis of Gd-Gd₂O₃ Nanoparticles

Based on the new necessity of residual dispensing of heavy metals (or even more, rare earths) that are part of the composition of multiple electronic components as the cellular phones or computers; this work reports the use of physical processes for taking advantage of elements from the electronic residues. Recycling and processing to generate nanomaterials is an attractive option, because the economic and ecologic perspectives. In this work, Gd-Gd₂O₃ nanoparticles (through a sonic-chemical method at room temperature assisted with Tannic acid as reduction agent), is reported. The structure characterization was performed over the samples using complementary techniques such as transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman and infrared spectroscopies. The obtained results are related to self-assembling mechanisms. As a complement, Ultraviolet-visible absorbance data was used to determine some electronic properties such as band structure. Therefore, this work has demonstrated the possibility of synthesizing lanthanide nanoparticles without burning the samples.