Facile hydrothermal synthesis of Tb 2 (MoO 4 ) 3 :Eu 3+ phosphors: controllable microstructures, tunable emission colors, and the energy transfer mechanism

• Published in: New journal of chemistry 2016, Vol.40 (9), p.7350-7358
• Main Authors: Yang, Jun, Zhou, Lei, Yuan, Li, Zhou, Xianju, Hu, Bin, Zhang, Xinlei, Hu, Shanshan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/C6NJ00887A

Microsphere-like Tb 2 (MoO 4 ) 3 structures have been successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method with the subsequent calcination treatment. The shape and size of the microstructure of Tb 2 (MoO 4 ) 3 precursors can be tuned effectively by altering the amount of citric acid, and the possible formation mechanisms of various microstructures are also put forward, showing that citric acid plays a key role in controlling the morphologies of the precursors. By doping Eu 3+ , Tb 2 (MoO 4 ) 3 :Eu 3+ phosphors exhibit excellent luminescence properties with tunable emission colors (green → yellow → red) resulting from the effective energy transfer from Tb 3+ to Eu 3+ . Particularly, the energy transfer mechanism (Tb 3+ → Eu 3+ ) has also been investigated in detail, showing that the process mainly takes place via the dipole–dipole interaction based on a few theoretical simulations. Due to the facile preparation process, as well as intense tunable emission colors, these novel phosphors are expected to find a broad range of applications in future color displays and light-emitting devices.