Synthesis of Eu-doped photoluminescent titania nanotubes via a two-step hydrothermaltreatment

Abstract

In this work, the synthesis of Eu-doped titania nanotubes was studied via a two-stephydrothermal treatment method. The first hydrothermal treatment was to obtain Eu-dopedTiO2 nanopowders with good dispersity. The second treatment was to produce the correspondingnanotubes. X-ray diffraction confirmed that the nanotubes were made of hydrated titania.Scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope analyses showed thatthe multilayered nanotubes had an outer diameter of 12 nm and inner diameter of4 nm, with length up to a few microns. The Eu-doped nanotubes exhibited strongemission lines associated with the transition of Eu3+. The nanotubes prepared by the two-step hydrothermal treatment exhibited betterphotoluminescence properties than the corresponding nanopowders and nanotubesprepared directly by the one-step hydrothermal treatment. The effect of the heat treatmentof nanotubes was also studied.