Uniform and well-dispersed GdVO4 hierarchical architectures: hydrothermal synthesis, morphology evolution, and luminescence properties

Abstract

GdVO4 nano/microcrystals with different morphologies were successfully synthesized via an efficient and facile hydrothermal process using trisodium citrate (Na3Cit) as the chelating ligand. X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra were employed to characterize the samples. By tuning the reaction time, vanadium sources, and Na3Cit content, GdVO4 samples with different morphologies and sizes have been successfully synthesised. The possible formation mechanism for these diverse architectures is proposed on the basis of time-dependent experiments. Under ultraviolet (UV) and low-voltage electron beam excitation, GdVO4 : Ln3+ (Ln3+ = Eu, Dy, and Sm) phosphors show strong light emissions with different colors coming from various Ln3+ ions due to an efficient energy transfer from vanadate groups to the dopants. The ability to generate GdVO4 nano/microstructures with diverse shapes, and multicolor emission provides a great opportunity for systematically evaluating their luminescence properties, as well as fully exploring their applications in light emitting phosphors, advanced flat panel display, field emission display devices or biological labeling.