Effect of Eu3+ doping concentration on the structural and luminescence properties of NaYF4: Eu3+ nanoparticles

Abstract

In our study, hexagonal-NaYF4: Eu3+ nanoparticles were synthesized by the solvothermal method at 180◦C for 24 hours. The typical vibrational spectrum showed the appearance of characteristic organic modes of oleic acid in the sample. The presence of elements such as Na, Y, F and Eu was indicated in the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns revealed that the NaYF4 host possessed the hexagonal structure when the doping contents below 5 mol%. At the Eu3+ amount of 10 mol%, the XRD appeared additional peaks of cubic phase of NaYF4 host. Both XRD and TEM data showed that the crystal sizes increase slightly as a function of Eu3+ doping concentration. Under an excitation at 395 nm, photoluminescence (PL) spectra revealed that the ratio of emission intensity between orange and red were controlled by changing the doping concentration. The optimal doping concentration was about 7 mol% for achieving the highest emission intensity. Moreover, PL data also demonstrated that a part of ions Eu3+ could occupy at Y3+ sites in the crystal structure of NaYF4. Because of their outstanding luminescent properties, NaYF4:Eu nanoparticles would the potential material for applications in biomedical medicine, optoelectronics.