Hydrothermal synthesis and luminescent properties of GdVO4: Eu3+ nanophosphors

Abstract

Eu3+-doped GdVO4 has been synthesised via hydrothermal method by altering the hydrothermal temperature, reaction time and surfactant. The microstructure and morphology information of the phosphors were investigated via the techniques of X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electronic microscopy, which show that the phosphors wear tetragonal phase and the products present various regular morphologies under different reaction conditions such as bulk and nanoparticle. Moreover, the morphologies of the products have been controlled by altering reaction temperature. In addition, the surfactant was also included to control the morphologies of the products and the phosphors present different morphologies. All the phosphors exhibit the characteristic fluorescence of Eu ion (5D0 → 7F2 and 5D0 → 7F2). The electric dipole transition 5D0 → 7F2 of Eu3+ is dominant indicating that most sites of Eu3+ ions in GdVO4 have no inversion centre. Furthermore, we found that the reaction time and the morphologies have great influence on optical properties.