Abstract

A series of lanthanide materials of type LnOCl or Ln2O3 (Ln ¼ Eu, Nd) were successfully prepared via a convenient and straightforward two-step procedure. Firstly, and by using chitosan and PS-co-P4VP as polymeric supports, macromolecular complexes of type chitosan$LnCl3 and PS-co-P4VP$LnCl3 were prepared. These macromolecular complexes were treated in solid state at 800 C under air, leading to the corresponding LnOCl or Ln2O3 materials (Ln ¼ Eu, Nd) with moderate to good yields. The nature of the asprepared lanthanide materials (LnOCl and/or Ln2O3) is strongly influenced by the polymeric template (i.e., chitosan or PS-co-P4VP), the lanthanide salt precursor, and the polymer/lanthanide molar ratio. Thus, when chitosan$EuCl3 and PS-co-P4VP$EuCl3 are used asmacromolecular precursors, a mixture of crystalline phases of both EuOCl and Eu2O3 are obtained. However, when chitosan$NdCl3 and PS-co-P4VP$NdCl3 are used, a sole pure crystalline phase of NdOCl is obtained. The nanostructured lanthanide materials were characterized by means of XRD (X-ray diffraction of powder), SEM, EDS, TEM, and HRTEM. The luminescent spectra of the asprepared EuOCl/Eu2O3 mixture materials show an emission patternwhose intensity is strongly influenced by the nature of the polymeric precursor, as well as on the metal/polymer molar ratios.