Synthesis of cubic ordered mesoporous YPO4:Ln3+ and their photoluminescence properties

Cubic ordered mesoporous yttrium phosphate (YPO4) and lanthanide-doped yttrium phosphates (YPO4: Ln(3+), Ln(3+) Eu3+, Tb3+ and Ce3+) have been synthesized successfully through the nanocasting route by employing the Y(NO3)(3):Ln(NO3)(3)/H3PO4/HNO3 system as a guest unit and KIT-6 silica as a hard template host, and their textural and structure properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electronic microscope and nitrogen adsorption at low temperature. The results show that the cubic ordered mesoporous YPO4 and YPO4: Ln(3+) materials exhibit high surface area, large pore volume and uniform pore size distribution. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements exhibit their optical properties such as red, green and blue emission, and their PL intensities can be altered by the dopant Ln(3+) concentration, without the need for doping or grafting external fluorophore species.