Effects of Eu3+-doping and annealing on structure and fluorescence of zirconia phosphors

ZrO2:Eu3+ nanocrystals were synthesized by hydrothermal technique. Effects of Eu3+ -doping and annealing on the morphology, crystal structure and fluorescence properties of the resultant ZrO2:Eu3+ nanocrystals were investigated. The morphology and crystal structure of the ZrO2:Eu3+ nanocrystals were characterized by TEM, XRD, FT-IR and Raman, respectively. The fluorescence properties were explored by PL and decay curve. The results showed that both the Eu3+ doping concentration and annealing temperature had influence on the crystal structure and fluorescence properties of ZrO2:Eu3+ nanocrystals. For the low Eu3+ -doping concentration, the amount of the tetragonal phase decreased with increasing the annealing temperature. The Eu3+ ion is trivalent rare earth (RE3+) activator, which can stabilize the tetragonal as well as the cubic structure of ZrO2. The ZrO2:Eu3+ nanocrystals with tetragonal or cubic structure may find potential applications as the raw material for producing the transparent ceramics with efficient fluorescence properties. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.