Magnetic-luminescent properties of Fe₃O₄@Gd₂O₃:Eu³⁺ coreshell nanocomposites

A simple Urea Homogeneous Precipitation (UHP) method was employed to synthesize bifunctional core-shell nanoparticles of Fe₃O₄@Gd₂O₃:Eu³⁺. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) were used to characterize the structure, morphology, luminescence and magnetic properties of the composites, respectively. Results show that the nanocomposites possess both luminescent and magnetic properties, thus the synthesized nanoparticles may find potential application in the area of biomedicine, such as drug targeting, fluorescence label and cell separation. (paper)