Issue 41, 2015

Hydrothermal synthesis and photoluminescence properties of Ca9Eu(PO4)7 nanophosphors

Abstract

The red-emitting Ca9Eu(PO4)7 nanophosphors have been successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, GSAS structural refinement and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the materials. Rietveld refinement of powder X-ray diffraction patterns of Ca9Eu(PO4)7 demonstrated that the structure of Ca9Eu(PO4)7 consisted of [PO4] tetrahedra. Ca/Eu atoms filled the space between the tetrahedral groups with Eu3+ ions distributed randomly on three individual Ca crystallographic sites. The major red emission peak located at 616 nm under 397 nm excitation attributed to the electric dipole transition 5D07F2 of Eu3+ was a parity forbidden f–f configuration transition, which would only occur when Eu3+ occupied lattice sites without inversion symmetry. Introducing Gd, La, and Y ions into samples made luminescence properties of Ca9Eu1−xLnx(PO4)7 (Ln = Gd, La, Y) phosphors decrease. pH value plays a key role in the formation of Ca9Eu(PO4)7 nanophosphor morphology. With increasing pH in the initial reaction solution, the morphology of samples changed from rod to sphere and their aspect ratio also decreased. Different morphologies have different photoluminescence properties, and samples prepared at pH 7 manifested better photoluminescence properties relative to other samples. This novel red-emitting phosphor could be applied in white light-emitting diodes.

Graphical abstract: Hydrothermal synthesis and photoluminescence properties of Ca9Eu(PO4)7 nanophosphors

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Jul 2015
Accepted
04 Sep 2015
First published
04 Sep 2015

CrystEngComm, 2015,17, 7888-7895

Author version available

Hydrothermal synthesis and photoluminescence properties of Ca9Eu(PO4)7 nanophosphors

J. Sun, X. Mi, L. Lei, X. Pan, S. Chen, Z. Wang, Z. Bai and X. Zhang, CrystEngComm, 2015, 17, 7888 DOI: 10.1039/C5CE01289A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements