Synthesis and photoluminescence properties of hierarchical architectures of YBO3:Eu3+

Abstract

We present a general hydrothermal method without any organic solvent or surfactant for the synthesis of YBO₃:Eu³⁺ nano- and micro-structures. The samples were of excellent quality with uniform, well dispersed, self-assembled and self-purified YBO₃:Eu³⁺. Single crystal nanoflakes gathered together to evolve into a hierarchical architecture with eight different types of three dimensional morphologies. Strong photoluminescence spectra were obtained at 592, 611 and 627 nm at excitations wavelengths 254 and 363 nm. The emission spectra are associated with the transitions from the excited ⁵D₀ level to the ⁷F_J (J = 1, 2, 3, 4) levels of Eu³⁺ activators. YBO₃:Eu³⁺ prepared using ethanol solvent exhibited the highest chromaticity values yet reported.