Hydrothermal synthesis, hierarchical structures and properties of blue pigments SrCuSi4O10 and BaCuSi4O10

Abstract

A hydrothermal method was developed to prepare blue pigments SrCuSi₄O₁₀ and BaCuSi₄O₁₀ in high yield and purity without any organic surfactants. The SEM image of SrCuSi₄O₁₀ indicates the presence of multi-layered microparticles with good dispersion. Hydrothermally synthetic Chinese blue BaCuSi₄O₁₀ forms hierarchically mesoporous microspheres, which are comprised of polydisperse aggregates consisting of sheetlike nanocrystallites. The possible growth mechanism of the hierarchical structures was discussed based on TEM images. The samples show strong near-infrared luminescence (Φ_EM = 8.5% for SrCuSi₄O₁₀ and Φ_EM = 6.9% for BaCuSi₄O₁₀), which is available for optical sensors.