Synthesis of novel halloysite@YF 3 :Ce 3+ ,Tb 3+ nanocomposite for enhanced luminescent properties

A novel halloysite@YF 3 : Ce 3+, Tb 3+ anocomposite with strong luminescent properties was designed and synthesized by a facile direct precipitation strategy. Owing to the halloysite as a support, it can significantly prevent the aggregation of YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ and the distribution of YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ on halloysite was highly uniform. Importantly, due to the unique surface-interface-dielectric multiple confinement (SIDMC) effects, the as-harvested halloysite@YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ nanocomposite exhibited excellent luminescent performance. Compared with YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+, the luminescence intensity of halloysite@YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ nanocomposite is significantly enhanced by about 6 times under 255 nm excitation. However, the fluorescence lifetime of halloysite@YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ nanocomposite (7.21 ms) is shorter than that of YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ nanoparticles (8.34 ms). This finding indicated that halloysite can change the luminescent properties of YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ nanoparticles through an SIDMC effect. The combination of halloysite and YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ nanoparticles not only endowed halloysite with special properties, and effectively tuned the luminescent properties of YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ nanoparticles, thereby improving the utility of halloysite and YF 3 :Ce 3+,Tb 3+ nanoparticles. The research supplies an insight on the development of natural mineral-based luminescent materials, and hopefully it could promote them application in many fields.