The effect of urea:nitrate ratio on the structure and luminescence properties of YVO4:Dy3+ phosphors

YVO4:Dy3+ phosphor has been successfully synthesised using combustion method. The dependence of the properties of YVO4:Dy3+ phosphor upon urea:nitrate concentration was investigated. The single tetragonal phase was observed by x-ray diffraction spectra. A highly crystalline YVO4:Dy3+ sample was obtained when increasing the ratio of the urea to 2. The estimated crystalline sizes from the Scherrer’s formula were found to be 20, 38, 33, 30, and 27 nm for the sample prepared with the ratio of 1, 2, 2.5, 3 and 4, respectively. The formation of agglomerated particles was observed by Scanning electron microscope images and it was observed that when increasing the concentration of urea further, flake-like particles formed. The diffuse reflectance spectra of YVO4:Dy3+ with various ratios of urea indicated that the determined optical band gap was ranging from 3.3 to 2.3 eV. Luminescence properties of YVO4:Dy3+ showed that the phosphor emit yellow colour at 573 nm and blue colour at 482 nm corresponding to 4F9/2→6H13/2 and 4F9/2→6H15/2 transitions, respectively. A very weak band at 663 nm which correspond to the 4F9/2→6H11/2 transition was also observed. It was found that the Photoluminescent emission intensity increased with an increase in the ratio of urea and reached a maximum at 2 then decreased when increasing the ratio of urea further.