Sonoluminescence of aqueous solution of gadolinium chloride

A line of the Gd^III ion was detected at 311 nm in the multibubble sonoluminescence spectrum of a concentrated (1 mol L⁻¹) solution of gadolinium chloride. A comparison with the earlier studied sonoluminescence of the Ce^III and Tb^III ions shows that the Gd^III ion is excited in the volume and/or on the surface of cavitation bubbles upon collisions with “hot” particles. The efficiency of excitation of the lanthanide ions via this mechanism depends on the type of electron transition. For the same energy of the excited state, the efficiency of Gd^III excitation (f-f transition) exceeds by at least 50 times that of Ce^III excitation (f-d transition). Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 6, pp. 1341–1344, June, 2005.