Background:
The strategy to form functional structures based on powder technology relies on the concept of nanoparticles characteristics. Rare-earth sesquioxides (RE2O3; RE as Y, Tm, Eu) exhibit remarkable properties, and their fields of application cover energy, astronomy, environmental, medical, information technology, industry, and materials science. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the RE2O3 nanoparticles characteristics as a bottom-up strategy to form functional materials for radiation dosimetry.
Methods:
The RE2O3 nanoparticles were characterized by the following techniques: XRD, SEM, PCS, FTIR, ICP, EPR, and zeta potential.
Results:
All RE2O3 samples exhibited cubic C-type structure in accordance with the sesquioxide diagram, chemical composition over 99.9%, monomodal mean particle size distribution, in which (d50) was inferior than 130nm. Among all samples, only yttrium oxide exhibited EPR signal, in which the most intense peak was recorded at 358mT and g 1.9701.
Conclusion:
The evaluation of nanoparticle characteristics is extremely important taking into account a bottom-up strategy to form functional materials. The RE2O3 nanoparticles exhibited promising characteristics for application in radiation dosimetry.