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Radiographic screens are widely used in high energy physics, national defense, aviation, radiodynamic therapy and medical imaging due to their scintillation materials that can transform high-energy particles or rays into ultraviolet (UV) visible light or other signals. In recent years, lanthanide doped fluoride nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted much attention due to their excellent optical properties and stability. In this work, multiple lanthanide-doped LiLuF 4 nanocrystal scintillation materials were synthesized by thermal decomposition. Among them, Tb-doped LiLuF 4 nanocrystals have high X-ray sensitivity and low detection limit (36.31 nGy s -1 ), which is much lower than the requirement of medical imaging dose rate. After the irradiation of 42.29 mGy s -1 X-ray for 1 hour, the intensity of radioluminescence basically remained unchanged. Based on the good properties of our nanocrystals, we further prepared the flexible film of nanocomposites with epoxy resin. This kind of uniform, large area, high loaded flexible film exhibits excellent performance in X-ray imaging with a spatial resolution greater than 20 line pairs per millimeter (LP/mm)., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Novel rare earth doped glass ceramics containing NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals were fabricated for the first time. The appearance of sharp diffraction peaks and well-resolved lattice fringes certifies the precipitation of NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals with high crystallinity. After the crystallization process, significant changes in the photoluminescence emission spectra and fluorescence lifetime of Sm 3+ ions are observed, which are ascribable to the enrichment of Sm 3+ ions in the highly disordered NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals. Under 980 nm excitation, characteristic green and red upconversion emission signals were detected and the enhanced upconversion luminescence of Er 3+ ions in the glass ceramics was attributable to the incorporation into the low energy phonon NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals. Based on the dependence of upconversion intensity on the excitation power, the upconversion mechanism of Er 3+ -Yb 3+ ions was proposed. The temperature-dependent fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of the thermally-coupled 2 H 11/2 and 4 S 3/2 energy levels was determined at a low power density of 0.4125 W cm -2 . The maximum temperature sensitivity is 146 × 10 -4 K -1 at 523 K, which is mainly attributed to the highly disordered structure of NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals and exhibits promising potential for optical temperature sensors., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

In this study, a jacobsite-biochar nanocomposite (MnFe 2 O 4 -BC) was fabricated and used to simultaneously remove Sb(iii) and Cd(ii) from water via adsorption. The MnFe 2 O 4 -BC nanocomposite was prepared via a co-precipitation method and analyzed using various techniques. The results confirm the successful decoration of the biochar surface with MnFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles. The maximum Sb(iii) removal efficiency was found to be higher from bi-solute solutions containing Cd(ii) than from single-solute systems, suggesting that the presence of Cd(ii) enhances the removal of Sb(iii). The Langmuir isotherm model describes well Sb(iii) and Cd(ii) removal via adsorption onto the MnFe 2 O 4 -BC nanocomposite. The maximum adsorption capacities are 237.53 and 181.49 mg g -1 for Sb(iii) and Cd(ii), respectively, in a bi-solute system. Thus, the prepared MnFe 2 O 4 -BC nanocomposite is demonstrated to be a potential adsorbent for simultaneously removing Sb(iii) and Cd(ii) ions from aqueous solutions., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)