Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2018) 133: 59
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2018-11866-6

Regular Article

Synthesis and characterization of rare-earth-doped calcium tungstate nanocrystals

¹ Advanced Functional Materials Research Centre, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, 522502, Vaddeswaram, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
² Department of Physics, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, 522502, Vaddeswaram, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India
³ Department of Physics, S.R. Govt. Arts & Science College, Kothagudem, Telangana, India

^* e-mail: rajesh8112@gmail.com

Received: 18 July 2017
Accepted: 10 January 2018
Published online: 16 February 2018

Abstract

In this paper, we report synthesis and characterization of rare-earth-ion-doped calcium tungstate (CaWO₄) nanocrystals (NCs). Rare-earth ions, such as gadolinium (Gd), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), samarium (Sm) and holmium (Ho), were successfully doped in the CaWO₄ NCs by changing the synthesis conditions. The adopted synthesis route was found to be fast and eco-friendly. Structural characterizations, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and compositional analysis, were performed using energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX) on as-synthesized NCs. The results indicate the size of the NCs ranging between 47 to 68nm and incorporation of rare-earth ions in CaWO₄ NCs.