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

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 (ΦEM = 8.5% for SrCuSi4O10 and ΦEM = 6.9% for BaCuSi4O10), which is available for optical sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]