Self-assembled 3D flower-like NaY(MoO4)2:Eu3+ microarchitectures: Hydrothermal synthesis, formation mechanism and luminescence properties

Self-assembled 3D flower-like NaY(MoO4)2:Eu3+ microarchitectures were successfully synthesized by a glycine-assisted hydrothermal method at 180 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were employed to characterize the as-obtained products. It was found that morphology modulation could be easily realized by changing the time of hydrothermal reaction system. 3D flower-like NaY(MoO4)2:Eu3+ microarchitectures were formed with 72 h reaction time. The formation mechanism for flower-like architecture was proposed on the basis of a series of time-dependent experiments. The NaY(MoO4)2:Eu3+ powders obtained can be effectively excited by 396 nm light, and exhibit strong red emission around 615 nm, attributed to the Eu3+5D0 → 7F2 transition. An investigation on the photoluminescence (PL) properties of NaY(MoO4)2:Eu3+ obtained revealed that the luminescence properties were correlated with the morphology and size.

Research highlights
► Self-assembled novel 3D NaY(MoO4)2:Eu3+ microarchitectures were synthesized via an efficient glycine-assisted hydrothermal process.
► The possible formation mechanism for the as-formed NaY(MoO4)2:Eu3+ was carefully put forward on the basis of a series of time-dependent experiments.
► An investigation on the photoluminescence (PL) properties of NaY(MoO4)2:Eu3+ obtained revealed that the luminescence properties were correlated with the morphology and size.