Facile Synthesis of Monodisperse LuPO<SUB>4</SUB>:Eu<SUP>3+</SUP>/Tb<SUP>3+</SUP> Hollow Nanospheres and Their Luminescence Properties

Abstract

Highly uniform and well-dispersed LuPO4 hollow nanospheres were successfully synthesized via a facile solution-phase method by utilizing the colloidal spheres of Lu(OH)CO3 as a sacrificial template and NH4H2PO4 as a phosphorus source. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR), photoluminescence (PL) spectra, and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra were employed to characterize the samples. The result indicates that the hollow LuPO4 spheres can be indexed to the tetragonal phase. The hollow LuPO4 spheres with diameter of about 300 nm become larger with respect to the sacrificial template. The shell of the hollow microspheres consists of numerous nanorods with the thickness of approximately 10 nm. Moreover, the possible formation mechanism of the evolution from Lu(OH)CO3 spheres to the final hollow LuPO4 hollow spheres has been proposed. In addition, upom ultraviolet (UV) and low-voltage electron beams excitation, 5 mol% Eu3+ and 5 mol% Tb3+ doped LuPO4 samples exhibit strong orange-red and green emission, corresponding to the characteristic lines of Eu3+ and Tb3+ under UV excitation, respectively, which may find potential application in the fields of color display and biomedicine.

Quick synthesis, functionalization and properties of uniform, luminescent LuPO4-based nanoparticles

“…Polyacrylic acid (PAA) was used as the functionalizing molecule (see the followed procedure in the Experimental section) due to its highly hydrophilic nature, which is appropriate for applications in the biotechnology eld. 14 The FTIR spectrum of the PAA-treated particles exhibited, in addition to the bands found in the spectrum of the nude The FTIR spectra of the particles, before and aer the functionalization process, are shown in Fig.…”

“…2,5 Many research groups have reported, in the last decade, on the doping of YPO 4 , LaPO 4 , CePO 4 , and GdPO 4 nanoparticles with ions of the f-elements for optoelectronic as well as biotechnological applications. Gao et al 14 reported the synthesis of uniform LuPO 4 hollow spheres using a two-step urea-based process which rendered particles with a diameter of around 300 nm, well above the size of nanometer-scale materials. Gao et al 14 reported the synthesis of uniform LuPO 4 hollow spheres using a two-step urea-based process which rendered particles with a diameter of around 300 nm, well above the size of nanometer-scale materials.…”

“…[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] However, very few reports have been found in the literature which describe the synthesis of LuPO 4 particles. Gao et al 14 reported the synthesis of uniform LuPO 4 hollow spheres using a two-step urea-based process which rendered particles with a diameter of around 300 nm, well above the size of nanometer-scale materials. To the best of our knowledge, only two papers have reported the synthesis of monodisperse, nanometer-size LuPO 4 particles.…”

Synthesis and luminescent properties of uniform monodisperse LuPO 4 :Eu 3+ /Tb 3+ hollow microspheres

“…In our prior study, we reported the synthesis of the monodisperse LuPO 4 hollow spheres by using the Lu(OH)CO 3 precursor spheres as templates through the hydrothermal process [34]. However, to the best of our knowledge, there have been few reports on the synthesis of uniform, well-dispersed micrometre-scaled rare earth-doped LuPO 4 hollow spheres and their corresponding luminescence properties.…”

“…Recently, many researches have reported on the synthesis of YPO 4 [27], LaPO 4 [28], CePO 4 [29] and GdPO 4 [14] micro/nanomaterials. Compared with a great deal of work on other orthophosphate materials, the study on the synthesis of LuPO 4 material has rarely been reported [30][31][32][33][34]. LuPO 4 is an excellent candidate for lanthanide ion substitution because of its favourable physical properties, such as high chemical stability, high melting point, high quantum yield and low toxicity.…”