Polyol-mediated synthesis of water-soluble LaF3:Yb,Er upconversion fluorescent nanocrystals

Abstract Well-crystallized LaF3:Yb,Er nanoparticles were prepared by the polyol method and three kinds of polyols (glycol, diethylene glycol and glycerol) were chosen as the reaction medium respectively. All of the obtained LaF3:Yb,Er nanoparticles have roughly spherical shapes, and the average sizes of these nanoparticles ranged from 5 to 7 nm. These nanoparticles could be well dispersed in water or ethanol to form colloidal solutions. When these nanoparticles were excited by the 980 nm laser, several upconversion emissions were observed.