Preparation and Luminescence Properties of YVO4:Ln and Y(V, P)O4:Ln (Ln = Eu3+, Sm3+, Dy3+) Nanofibers and Microbelts by Sol-Gel/Electrospinning Process

One-dimensional YVO4:Ln and Y(V, P)O-4:Ln nanofibers and quasi-one-dimensional YVO4:Ln microbelts (Ln = Eu3+, Sm3+, Dy3+) have been prepared by a combination method of sol-gel process and electrospinning. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), photoluminescence (PL), low-voltage cathodoluminescence (CL), and time-resolved emission spectra as well as kinetic decays were used to characterize the resulting samples. Due to an efficient energy transfer from vanadate groups to dopants, YVO4:Ln phosphors showed their strong characteristic emission under ultraviolet excitation (280 nm) and low-voltage electron beam excitation (1-3 kV). The energy transfer process was further studied by the time-resolved emission spectra as well as kinetic decay curves of Eu3+ upon excitation into the VO43- ion. Furthermore, the PL emission color of YVO4:Ln nanofibers can be tuned from blue to green, orange-red. and red easily by partial replacement VO43- with PO43- and changing the doping concentrations (x) of Ln, making the materials have potential applications in fluorescent lamps and field emission displays (FEDs).