Mineralizer-Assisted Shape-Control of Rare Earth Oxide Nanoplates

Rare earth oxides are important emerging materials because of their unique properties. Nanosized, two-dimentional (2D) materials have received increasing attention due to their high surface-to-volume ratios and ultrathin layered structures. Here, we synthesize 2D rare earth (RE) oxide nanoplates in the presence of a mineralizer. The use of a mineralizer not only facilitates the synthesis of RE oxide nanoplates (i.e., increases the yield and allows mild reaction parameters), but also allows for shape-control. To emphasize the importance of RE oxide nanoplates in materials science and engineering, we demonstrate that (1) ceria nanoplates can be used in a ceria/Cu inverse catalyst to enable an enhanced CO oxidation activity, and (2) Y₂O₃ nanoplates doped with Eu³⁺ enable photon energy down-conversion