A New, Thorough Look on Unusual and Neglected Group III-VI Compounds Toward Novel Perusals.

The attention on group III-VI compounds in the last decades has been centered on the optoelectronic properties of indium and gallium chalcogenides. These outstanding properties are leading to novel advancements in terms of fundamental and applied science. One of the advantages of these compounds is to present laminated structures, which can be exfoliated down to monolayers.

Ultrafast Synthesis and Coating of High-Quality β-NaYF:Yb,Ln Short Nanorods.

An ultrafast route to prepare up-converting single β-phase NaYF:Yb,Ln (Ln: Er, Tm, or Tb) short nanorods (UCNRs) of high quality was developed. This new procedure affords reactive-surface nanorods that are easily coated by direct injection of suitable capping ligands. Thus highly crystalline nanorods with excellent UC fluorescence and good solvent-selective dispersion are obtained, which represents a significant advance in the field and enlarges their use for biomedical and other technological applications.

Room-temperature synthesis of nickel borides via decomposition of NaBH(4) promoted by nickel bromide.

We report the formation of nickel borides, at room temperature and pressure, from the decomposition of NaBH(4) promoted by the addition of nickel bromide at different concentrations in a dispersing organic medium, tetrahydrofuran and pentane. The nickel borides, formed as amorphous powders, were analyzed, and the structure information served as input for modeling a periodic lattice structure with the same composition. Experimentally, the nickel boride phases were predominantly composed of a boron-rich phase with composition NiB(3).

Synthesis of water-soluble 2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl nanoparticles: a new standard for electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy.

This communication reports a size-controlled synthesis of water-soluble 2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) nanoparticles (NPs). These nanoparticles exhibit size-dependent absorption spectra and fast spin exchange-narrowed single-line EPR spectra. The linewidths of the EPR spectra of these water-soluble nanoparticles are approximately 1.