Synthesis of barium fluoride nanoparticles from microemulsion

The cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/2-octanol/water microemulsion system was used to synthesize barium fluoride nanoparticles. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the products were single phase. The results of scanning electron microscopy and calculations using the Scherrer equation from the line widths of the XRD have been used to estimate the average particle sizes of the powder products. The results showed that the nanoparticle size was affected by water content and surfactant (CTAB) concentration. As water content decreases from 14.2 to 9.47 percent (w/w), the particle size decreases from 75 to 40 nm. In addition, increasing the reaction times from 5 to 120 min increases the particle size from 75 to 150 nm, and increasing the amount of surfactant decreases the size of the particle. Luminescence spectra of the BaF2:Ce nanoparticles are also discussed