Tuning of structural, optical and toxicological properties of Gd3+ doped Yb2O3 nanoparticles

Abstract The nanoparticles of Ytterbium oxide (Yb2O3) with spherical architectures have been synthesized by using hydrothermal procedure. The prepared Yb2O3 nanoparticles were further doped with Gd3+ ions for exploring the potential of the nanoparticles in terms of tuning the optical properties such as band gap. Here, we demonstrated that the dopant inside the nanoparticles affects the optical properties and show how it has a relevant consequence on the overall peak position of Yb2O3 as a function of dopant concentrations. We have also examined the crystallite changes in Yb2O3 nanoparticles by employing the X-ray peak profile analysis. The respective Williamson–Hall studies and size–strain plot were employed to study the individual roles of crystallite sizes and lattice strain over Yb2O3 nanoparticles as a function of Gd3+ ion doping. The factors including strain, stress and energy density value were computed for both bare and Gd3+ ion doped Yb2O3 nanoparticles. The toxicological profiling of bare and Gd3+ doped Yb2O3 nanoparticles were carried out by multiple assays including antibacterial, antifungal, seed germination assay and A. Cepa genotoxic studies. The results have demonstrated the excellent biocompatibility of prepared nanoparticles and signifying their potential applications in biomedical field.