Co-precipitation synthesis of Y2O2SO4:Eu3+ nanophosphor and comparison of photoluminescence properties with Y2O3:Eu3+ and Y2O2S:Eu3+ nanophosphors

Abstract

Eu3+ ions activated yttrium oxysulfate (Y2O2SO4:Eu3+) nanophosphor has been successfully synthesized by a co-precipitation method from commercially available Y(NO3)3·6H2O, Eu(NO3)3·6H2O, (NH4)2SO4 and NH3·H2O as the starting materials. Detailed characterizations of the synthetic products were obtained by differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetry and derivative thermogravimetry (DTA-TG-DTG), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The results revealed that the precursor was composed of amorphous yttrium hydroxide sulfate when (NH4)2SO4 was introduced in the reaction system. Moreover, the precursor could be converted into pure Y2O2SO4 phase by calcining at 800 °C for 2 h in air and pure Y2O2S phase could be obtained by calcining Y2O2SO4 at 800 °C for 1 h in hydrogen atmosphere. The as-synthesized Y2O2SO4 phosphor particles are quasi-spherical in shape, slight aggregation and about 20–30 nm in size. PL spectra of the Y2O2SO4:Eu3+ nanophosphor under 270 nm ultraviolet (UV) light excitation show a red emission at 620 nm as the most prominent peak, which attributes to the 5D0→7F2 transition of Eu3+ ions. The quenching concentration of Eu3+ ions was 5 mol%, and its corresponding fluorescence lifetime was 1.49 ms according to the linear fitting result. Furthermore, the Y2O3 nanophosphor was synthesized by similar reaction and comparison of PL properties among three kinds of Eu3+ activated nanophosphors was also systematically discussed.