English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Fast and sensitive detection of dilute rare earth species still represents a challenge for an on-site survey of new resources and evaluation of the economic value. In this work, a robust and low-cost protocol has been developed to analyze the concentration of rare earth ions using a smartphone camera. The success of this protocol relies on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) with large-area negatively charged surfaces, on which the rare earth cations (e.g., Eu 3+ ) are efficiently adsorbed through electrostatic attraction to enable a “concentrating effect”. The initial adsorption rate is as fast as 4025 mg (g min) −1 , and the adsorption capacity of Eu 3+  ions in the MSNs is as high as 4730 mg g −1  (equivalent to ~ 41.2 M) at 70 °C. The concentrated Eu 3+  ions in the MSNs can form a complex with a light sensitizer of 1,10-phenanthroline to significantly enhance the characteristic red emission of Eu 3+  ions due to an “antenna effect” that relies on the efficient energy transfer from the light sensitizer to the Eu 3+  ions. The positive synergy of “concentrating effect” and “antenna effect” in the MSNs enables the analysis of rare earth ions in a wide dynamic range and with a detection limit down to ~ 80 nM even using a smartphone camera. Our results highlight the promise of the protocol in fieldwork for exploring valuable rare earth resources.Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (10.1007/s40820-018-0208-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Mesoporous SiO2 Nanoparticles: A Unique Platform Enabling Sensitive Detection of Rare Earth Ions with Smartphone Camera