New materials from Europium will help create sensors of the future
Scientists from the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the National Research University Higher School of Economics and Lomonosov Moscow State University have proposed a method for the production of europium compounds. They make materials that can be given a specific structure and properties.
New materials can be given a specific structure and properties by dissolving europium chloride with an "antenna" ligand in different alcohols. The scientists synthesized experimental samples using seven different alcohols. In all cases, the complexes formed as crystals of various shapes and sizes. The resulting compounds were initially unstable, however, when the alcohol evaporated in air or when heated, the substances acquired the same structure in the form of a polymer.
"The study helped us understand how to form such structures. At the next stage, we plan to apply this knowledge to the synthesis of rare earth compounds with other antenna ligands with similar chemical structures, as well as to study their properties," Victoria Goncharenko, a junior researcher at the Laboratory of Molecular Spectroscopy of Luminescent Materials at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia.
The resulting substance can be used to mark banknotes and valuable documents to protect them from counterfeiting, the scientists said. In addition, the results of the study open the way to the creation of new synthetic medical materials for the diagnosis of pathological changes in tissues. The compounds synthesized by the new method will also be useful in the production of sensors for industrial monitoring, for example, detecting leaks of harmful compounds.
Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:
Dawn of Europium: new materials from rare earths will help create sensors of the future
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
