Development of the FTIR properties of nano-structure silica gel doped with different rare earth elements, prepared by sol-gel route

Structural characteristics of pure silica gel (silica-xerogel, SiO2) and silica gel doped with some rare earth elements (REEs) such as, praseodymium Pr3+, and Europium Eu3+, Erbium Er3+ and Holmium Ho3+ ions, with different concentrations ranging from 1 up to 6%, in the form of monolith materials were prepared by sol-gel technique, Using tetra-ethoxysilane as precursor materials, which are of particular interest for sol-gel integrated optics applications. Some structural features of sol-gel derived monolith are analyzed, namely the structure of nano-particle momolith samples, based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). We show that the XRD spectra of α-crystobalite are obtained for the pure samples at 1100°C and even by doping with the four REEs ions.