Synthesis of Sub-30 nm Lanthanide-Doped KLu₂F₇ Nanorods with Multicolor Upconversion Luminescence

Sub-30 nm lanthanide-doped KLu₂F₇ upconversion (UC) nanorods were synthesized using a hightemperature coprecipitation method. Highly uniform morphologies, a small size distribution and the desirable orthorhombic crystalline phase was achieved by controlling the reaction temperature; while control over the UC luminescence color was achieved by changing the dopant activator. Orthorhombic KLu₂F₇ nanorods showed excellent potential as a host phase for future UC luminescence materials in applications such as bioimaging.