Hydrothermal synthesis of YBO3:Tb3+ microflowers and their luminescence properties

Three-dimensional flowerlike YBO3:Tb3+ phosphors have been successfully prepared by an efficient surfactant-free hydrothermal process directly without further sintering treatment. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDS) spectrometry, selected area electron diffraction (SAED), photoluminescence (PL) spectra were used to characterize the samples. The as-obtained samples present flowerlike agglomerates composed of nanoflakes with thickness of 20nm and high crystallinity in spite of the moderate reaction temperature of 180 degrees C. The reaction mechanism has been considered as a dissolution/precipitation mechanism; the self-assembly evolution process has been proposed on homocentric layer-by-layer growth style. The different luminescent intensity with different molar ratio of Y-Tb [Y:Tb = 8:2; 7:3; 6:4; 5:5; 4:6], YBO3:Tb3+ phosphors exhibit different light (white, red, green) under ultraviolet excitation, which might find potential applications in the fields such as light display systems and optoelectronic devices. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.