Controllable morphology and high photoluminescence of (Y, Gd)(V, P) O4:Eu3+ nanophosphors synthesized by two-step reactions

Multi-ion doped YVO4:Eu3+ nanophosphors with high photoluminescence intensity were successfully prepared by a two-step reaction process for the first time, including YVO4:Eu3+ seeds synthesized by hydrothermal reaction and co-doping P5+ and Gd3+ in a sol-gel process. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy were adopted to detect the structure, grain size, morphology and optical properties of the nanophosphors, respectively. Owning to the template-induced effect of the seeds, the morphology and size of the nanophosphors could be controlled by adjusting the molar ratios between the seeds and doping ions. The size of these nanophosphors increased as P5+ and Gd3+ co-doped. However, most of the samples kept approximately spherical morphology and narrow size distribution. The composition-optimized (Y, Gd)(V, P) O-4:Eu3+ nanophosphors with spherical morphology in the 80-100 nm range exhibit better red emission and superior color saturation under vacuum ultraviolet excitation compared with that of the commercial phosphor (Y, Gd) BO3:Eu3+.