Effect of solution pH value changes on fluorescence intensity of magnetic-luminescent Fe3O4@Gd2O3:Eu3+ nanoparticles

In this paper, bifunctional Fe 3 O 4 @Gd 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ core-shell nanoparticles with both magnetic and fluorescent properties were synthesized through a urea homogeneous precipitation (UHP) method. Particular emphasis was placed on investigating the influence of the solution pH value on the photoluminescence of the core-shell nanocomposites. It showed that the samples treated at the solution of pH=3.0 had the highest luminescence due to the enhanced crystallinity and size uniformity of nanoparticles. The Fe 3 O 4 @Gd 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ nanocomposites exhibited an almost spherical shape with a mean diameter of 60 nm, and had strong red emissions of Eu 3+ at 612 nm as well as good magnetization with the saturation magnetization of 1.29 emu/g. It thus indicated that the core-shell nanocomposites investigated has great potential in biomedical applications.