Preparation And Luminescence Properties Of Low-dimensional Rare-earth Doped Yttrium Phosphate-vanadate Nanomaterials

Rare earth ions activated YVO4 phosphors have received more and more attention in recent years owing to their high luminescent intensities and stability under UV excitation. By partial replacement of VO43- ions with PO43- ions, a new series of Ln-doped yttrium phosphate-vanadates (YPxV1-xO4) have been obtained with better luminescent properties. YPxV1-xO4:Eu3+ has been proved to be a new potential red phosphor for plasma display panel (PDP). Dy3+-doped YPxV1-xO4 is a potential white phosphor due to its yellow and blue emissions. Although the investigations on YVO4:Ln and YPxV1-xO4:Ln phosphors are extensive, little study has been reported on synthesis of them by combustion method and electrospinning process. It will be an important and novel research subject.In this work, YPxV1-xO4:Dy3+ nanomaterials were synthesized by combustion method. YPxV1-xO4:Dy3+, YPxV1-xO4:Eu3+ nanofibers and nanobelts were prepared by a combination method of sol-gel process and electrospinning. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and photoluminescence (PL) were used to characterize the resulting samples. The meaningful results are indicated as below:(1) YPxV1-xO4:Dy3+ (X=0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1) phosphors were prepared by combustion method. The results indicated that grains with spherical morphology are non-agglomeration, the average size is 61 nm. With the increase of X value, the crystallite size, the emission intensity and the yellow (4F9>â†'6H13/2)-to-blue (4F9/2â†'6H15/2) intensity ratio of Dy3+ decrease, whereas the luminescent intensity of VO43- increases. The phosphor were found to yield white light when the value of X in the range of 0.2 to 0.4.(2) YPxV1-xO4:Dy3+ and YPxV1-xO4:Eu3+ (X=0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8) nanobelts were prepared by electrospinning process for the first time, and the nanofibers were also synthesized to compare. The characteristics of them were similar while the nanobelts have a higher PL intensity than that of nanofibers. With the increase of X value, the crystallite size, the emission intensity, the yellow (4F9/2â†'6H13/2)-to-blue (4F9/2â†'6H15/2) intensity ratio of Dy3+ and the red (5D0â†'7F2)- to-orange (3D0â†'7F1) intensity ratio of Eu3+ decrease, whereas the luminescent intensity of VO43- increases. In addition, YPxV1-xO4:Dy3+ were found to yield white light when the value of X in the range of 0.2 to 0.4, and with the increase of X value, the color purity of YPxV1-xO4:Eu3+ decreases.