A new approach to prepare nanoscopic rare earth metal fluorides: the fluorolytic sol–gel synthesis of ytterbium fluoride

Abstract

A new approach for the preparation of approx. 5 nm sized ytterbium fluoride nanoparticles based on the fluorolytic sol–gel route is reported. DLS, TEM, IR and XRD were used to characterize the particles as well as the aging behavior of the sols. Furthermore, a new Yb^III complex was isolated from the precursor solution and characterized by X-ray single crystal structure determination.