New advanced materials for sensing applications: a collaborative project on structural and spectroscopic characterisation of novel rare-earth solids

Abstract

Rare earth (RE)-based materials (i.e. solid compounds of the lanthanide metals) show growing technological importance in the fields of energy, catalysis and sensing due to their unique properties. Further improvement of the applications of RE solid-state compounds is dependent on a deeper comprehension of the structural and spectroscopic properties of this class of materials and the mechanisms of their formation. To make advances in this area, this proposal aims to establish a scientific collaboration between the research groups of Paulo C. de Sousa Filho (University of Campinas, Brazil) and Richard I. Walton (University of Warwick, UK). Given the complementary nature of the research interests of these two groups, this project intends to apply advanced X-ray-based characterisation techniques to describe crystallisation and growth mechanisms, which will further enable the accurate design of new functional inorganic oxide nanoparticles and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). For this, controllable structural and morphological properties will be correlated to the spectroscopic behaviour of RE-based materials, which will provide significant contributions in the field of luminescent sensors. (AU)