Influence of TTAB on morphology and photoluminescence of GdVO4:Eu3 + powders in a wide pH range

We demonstrate that the critical issue of controllable growth of GdVO4:Eu3 + crystal particles is solved by “tetradecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (TTAB)” in a variable pH range. The microstructure, morphology, and luminescence property of the phosphors were investigated by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). The results suggested that the surfactant TTAB was a key factor for determining the morphology of final GdVO4:Eu3 + crystals. The influence of pH on the nucleation rate was studied as well. The PL results indicated that the PL property of the GdVO4:Eu3 + phosphors was crucially impacted by the micro-structure and morphology. All the phosphors mainly showed strong red emissions at 615 and 618 nm originating from the hypersensitive transition 5D0 → 7F2 of Eu3 + ions. The nano-sized phosphors showed prominent PL properties due to the grain size effect. The crystalline state and the microstructure of the products also affected the PL performance.