Preparation And Luminescence Properties Of Low-dimensional Rare Earth Fluoride Nanomaterials

Rare earth fluoride is one of the high efficient matrixes for rare earth ion-dopedluminescent materials owing to its bumper4f levels and low vibrational energies. Ithas been extensively applied in the fields of solar cell, anti-fake, medical testing,biological tag, etc. Nowadays, rare earth fluoride with various morphologies includingsphere-like structure, flake-shaped structure, rod, hollow tubes, nanofibers (NFs),nanobelts have been prepared. There have been no reports on the rare earth fluoridehollow nanofibers. In order to study their properties, a preparation technique of rareearth fluoride nanofibers and nanobelts is urgently needed. Electrospinning is the bestchoice to fabricate one-dimentional nanomaterials due to its simple and highlyreproducible process. Therefore, fabrication of rare earth ions-doped rare earthfluoride nanofibers and nanobelts via electrospinning will be a meaningful subject ofsignificance.For the first time, PVP was used as template to fabricate GdF3:Eu3+, NaYF4:RE3+(RE=Eu, Tb) down-conversion luminescence nanomaterials were obtained on thebasis of fabrication of NaYF4nanomaterials. Luminescence properties of thesenanomaterials were also studied.The samples were characterized by XRD, SEM and PL. Results show thatorthorhombic GdF3:Eu3+nanomaterials and hexagonal NaYF4:RE3+(RE=Eu, Tb)nanomaterials were prepared by calcination of PVP/[rare earth nitrate] compositenanomaterials at600℃for4h followed by fluorization of the relevant mixed oxidesnanomaterials at280℃for2h using NH4HF2as fluorinating agent and deammonia at500℃for3h, respectively. Diameters of these fibers are80-200nm. The strongestemission peak of GdF3:Eu3+nanomaterials was attributed to5D0â†'7F1transition ofEu3+. The strongest emission peak of NaYF4: Eu3+nanomaterials was attributed to5D0â†'7F1transition of Eu3+, and the strongest emission peak of NaYF4:Tb3+nanomaterials was attributed to5D4â†'7F5transition of Tb3+.