Sodium citrate (Na3Cit)-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of uniform spindle-like SrMoO4:Eu3+ phosphors

Highly uniform spindle-like SrMoO4:Eu3+ phosphors have been prepared by a facile hydrothermal method using sodium citrate (Na3Cit) as the chelating reagent. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and photoluminescence spectra (PL) were used to characterize the resulting samples. The dosage of sodium citrate, reaction temperature and reaction time play key roles in the formation of the final samples. The possible formation mechanism for SrMoO4:Eu3+ phosphors has been proposed. Upon excitation by ultraviolet radiation, the as-synthesized SrMoO4:Eu3+ phosphors show the characteristic 5D0–7FJ (J = 1, 2, 3, 4) emission lines with red emission 5D0–7F2 (613 nm) as the most prominent group.