Preparation and characterization of nanosphere and nanorod Gd₂O₃:Tb³⁺ by polyol route

Nanorod and nanosphere ${{\rm Gd}_2}{{\rm O}_3}\!:\!{{\rm Tb}^{3 + }}$Gd₂O₃:Tb³⁺ particles were synthesized from chloride precursors ${{\rm GdCl}_3}$GdCl₃ and ${{\rm TbCl}_3}$TbCl₃ by NaOH addition in a diethylene glycol medium. The nanospheres and the nanorods of ${{\rm Gd}_2}{{\rm O}_3}\!:\!{{\rm Tb}^{3 + }}$Gd₂O₃:Tb³⁺ were tunably obtained by adjusting the addition speed of NaOH. The structure, morphologies, and the luminescence properties of nanorod and nanosphere ${{\rm Gd}_2}{{\rm O}_3}\!:\!{{\rm Tb}^{3 + }}$Gd₂O₃:Tb³⁺ were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and fluorescence spectrometry, respectively. The results confirmed that the structure of nanorod and nanosphere ${{\rm Gd}_2}{{\rm O}_3}\!:\!{{\rm Tb}^{3 + }}$Gd₂O₃:Tb³⁺ is cubic ${{\rm Gd}_2}{{\rm O}_3}$Gd₂O₃, and the luminescence of nanospheres is more intense than that of nanorods. The low cytotoxicity measured by the MTT method indicated the good biocompatibility of the samples.