Monodispersed spherical Y2O3 and Y2O3:Eu3+ particles synthesized from modified homogeneous urea precipitation process

Monodispersed spherical Y2O3 powders are of great scientific interests as well as practical and technological applications. Here, the present study reports a modified homogeneous urea precipitation process to achieve monodispersed spherical Y2O3 powders using polyvinyl pyrrolidone(PVP-K30) as surface active agent. Owing to that of controlling the decomposition of urea and nucleation of metal ions with PVP-K30 as surface active agent during the precipitation process, the as-obtained precipitate precursor are monodispersed sphere with uniform particle size in a high Y3+ concentration about 0.5 M, which led to the formation uniform spherical Y2O3 particles after the calcining process at 800 degrees C for 2 h. The optical performance of spherical Y2O3:Eu3+ was also studied, which displayed strong red emission peak at 613 nm ascribed to D-5(0)-> F-7(2) forced electric dipole transition of Eu3+. All these critical characteristics suggest that the as-obtained Y2O3 powders hold promising applications in bioimaging, solid-state lighting, display devices and functional ceramics. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.