Room-Temperature Synthesis and Optical Properties of NdVO4 Nanoneedles.

Tetragonal NdVO4 nanoneedles were prepared via a simple room-temperature precipitation method in the absence of any surfactant or template, starting from simple inorganic salts, NdCl3 and Na3VO4, as raw materials. The nanoneedles were characterized by XRPD, SEM, Raman, PL, and lifetime spectroscopy. The particles have a length of about 100 nm and a diameter of 20 nm and grow along <112> direction. The advantages of this method lie in the high yield, non-toxic solvents, mild reaction conditions, and that it can potentially be employed for the preparation of other 1D lanthanide vanadates.