Size-Dependent High-Pressure Behavior of Pure and Eu 3+ -Doped Y 2 O 3 Nanoparticles: Insights from Experimental and Theoretical Investigations

• Published in: Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2024-04, Vol.14 (8)
• Main Authors: Pereira, André Luis de Jesus, Sans, Juan Ángel, Gomis, Óscar, Santamaría-Pérez, David, Ray, Sudeshna, Godoy, Jr, Armstrong, da Silva-Sobrinho, Argemiro Soares, Rodríguez-Hernández, Plácida, Muñoz, Alfonso, Popescu, Catalin, Manjón, Francisco Javier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2079-4991; 2079-4991

We report a joint high-pressure experimental and theoretical study of the structural, vibrational, and photoluminescent properties of pure and Eu -doped cubic Y O nanoparticles with two very different average particle sizes. We compare the results of synchrotron X-ray diffraction, Raman scattering, and photoluminescence measurements in nanoparticles with ab initio density-functional simulations in bulk material with the aim to understand the influence of the average particle size on the properties of pure and doped Y O nanoparticles under compression. We observe that the high-pressure phase behavior of Y O nanoparticles depends on the average particle size, but in a different way to that previously reported. Nanoparticles with an average particle size of ~37 nm show the same pressure-induced phase transition sequence on upstroke and downstroke as the bulk sample; however, nanoparticles with an average particle size of ~6 nm undergo an irreversible pressure-induced amorphization above 16 GPa that is completed above 24 GPa. On downstroke, 6 nm nanoparticles likely consist of an amorphous phase.