Synthesis of nanometer Y₂O₃:Eu phosphor and its luminescence property

Metal nitrate aqueous solution was mixed with citric acid to synthesize the red emission nanometer Y₂O₃:Eu phosphor by simple sol-gel processing. Structure characterization of the phosphor was carried out by XRD and TEM. The samples are mostly amorphous when the dry gel is calcined below 500 °C and crystallize completely at 600 °C, and the crystallity increases with increasing calcining temperature. The mean particle size increases from about 10 to 50 nm when the calcining temperature increases from 600 to 900 °C, while that calcined at 1250 °C is about 100 nm. The luminescence property of the phosphor was analyzed by measuring the excitation and emission spectra. The luminescence intensity increases when the calcining temperature increases and luminescence intensity is higher than that prepared by solid-state reaction method when the concentration of Eu³⁺ and the calcining temperature are the same.