Preparation of cereal-like YVO(4):Ln(3+) (Ln = Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy) for high quantum efficiency photoluminescence.
In this work, preparation of cereal-like architectures Y V O(4) and Y V O(4):Ln(3 + ) (Ln = Eu, Sm, Dy, Tb) was initiated using a hydrothermal method. During the formation reaction, Na(3)C(6)H(5)O(7).2H(2)O was used to effectively adjust the concentration of Y(3 + ) species necessary for cereal-like architectures. Phase structure, surface chemistry, morphology, and photoluminescence were characterized by x-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectra, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence spectra. All samples crystallize in a tetragonal zircon structure, stably showing a homogeneous cereal-like morphology. This special morphology was constructed by self-assembly of tiny primary particles with a dimension of 31-32 nm. With increasing atomic number of Ln(3 + ), the lattice dimension of the cereal architectures became monotonously enlarged. This cereal-like architecture is proved unique in significantly improving the quantum efficiencies: the internal quantum efficiencies of (5)D(0) for Ln = Eu and (4)F(9/2) for Ln = Dy were 14.6% and 11.4%, respectively, which are all superior over those of the counterparts of nanoparticles reported in the literature. The average lifetime of the (5)D(0) level for Ln = Eu was calculated to be 98 micros, which is longer than that of 50 micros of the (4)F(9/2) level for Ln = Dy. The strong photoluminescence might be the consequence of the effective energy transfer due to the greatly reduced defect centers from this special self-assembly structure.
Li
Liping
L
State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter and Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou 350002, People's Republic of China.
Zhao
Minglei
M
Tong
Wenming
W
Guan
Xiangfeng
X
Li
Guangshe
G
Yang
Liusai
L