Controllable synthesis of Eu3+/Tb3+ activated lutetium fluorides nanocrystals and their photophysical properties

In this paper, phosphors of LuF3:Eu3+/Tb3+ have been successfully synthesized with small chelator ethylenediaminetetra acetic acid (EDTA) or amphiphilic polymer (polyethylene glycol, PEG-1000) as templates via a hydrothermal method. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscope (SEM), and photo-luminescent spectra techniques (PL) were used to characterize the as-prepared samples. XRD patterns showed that well crystallized lanthanide fluorides with hexagonal phase were achieved. SEM images revealed that different regular microstructures were achieved. The photo-luminescent properties of LuF3:Eu3+ demonstrated that there are significant energy transfers from fluorides to Eu3+. The results presented that EDTA as the template will lead to the highest emission intensities.