Hydrothermal chemistry, structures, and luminescence studies of alkali hafnium fluorides.

This paper describes the hydrothermal chemistry of alkali hafnium fluorides, including the synthesis and structural characterization of five new alkali hafnium fluorides. Two ternary alkali hafnium fluorides are described: Li(2)HfF(6) in space group P31m with a = 4.9748(7) Å and c = 4.6449(9) Å and Na(5)Hf(2)F(13) in space group C2/m with a = 11.627(2) Å, b = 5.5159(11) Å, and c = 8.4317(17) Å. Three new alkali hafnium oxyfluorides are also described: two fluoroelpasolites, K(3)HfOF(5) and (NH(4))(3)HfOF(5), in space group Fm3m with a = 8.9766(10) and 9.4144(11) Å, respectively, and K(2)Hf(3)OF(12) in space group R3m with a = 7.6486(11) Å and c = 28.802(6) Å. Infrared (IR) spectra were obtained for the title solids to confirm the structure solutions. Comparison of these materials was made based on their structures and synthesis conditions. The formation of these species in hydrothermal fluids appears to be dependent upon both the concentration of the alkali fluoride mineralizer solution and the reaction temperature. Both X-ray and visible fluorescence studies were conducted on compounds synthesized in this study and showed that fluorescence was affected by a variety of factors, such as alkali metal size, the presence/absence of oxygen in the compound, and the coordination environment of Hf(4+).

X-ray luminescence imaging for small animals.

X-ray luminescence imaging emerged for about a decade and combines both the high spatial resolution of x-ray imaging with the high measurement sensitivity of optical imaging, which could result in a great molecular imaging tool for small animals. So far, there are two types of x-ray luminescence computed tomography (XLCT) imaging. One uses a pencil beam x-ray for high spatial resolution at a cost of longer measurement time. The other uses cone beam x-ray to cover the whole mouse to obtain XLCT images at a very short time but with a compromised spatial resolution. Here we review these two methods in this paper and highlight the synthesized nanophosphors by different research groups. We are building a focused x-ray luminescence tomography (FXLT) imaging system, developing a machine-learning based FXLT reconstruction algorithm, and synthesizing nanophosphors with different emission wavelengths. In this paper, we will report our current progress from these three aspects. Briefly, we mount all main components, including the focused x-ray tube, the fiber detector, and the x-ray tube and x-ray detector for a microCT system, on a rotary which is a heavy-duty ring track. A microCT scan will be performed before FXLT scan. For a FXLT scan, we will have four PMTs to measure four fiber detectors at two different wavelengths simultaneously for each linear scan position. We expect the spatial resolution of the FXLT imaging will be around 100 micrometers and a limit of detection of approximately 2 µg/mL (for Gd2O2S:Eu).