Morphology controlled Y2O3:Eu3+ nanophosphors with enhanced photoluminescence properties

Eu3+ doped Y2O3 is prepared by a co-precipitation method using ammonium hydrogen carbonate as precipitating agent. In the present work we studied the effect of different molar concentrations of Poly vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and 1-Thio-glycerol (TG) as capping agents to enhance the optical and morphological properties of Y2O3:Eu3+ nanophosphors. In addition, variation of pH was studied to control the particle size of the synthesized product. The polymer concentration (TG and PVP) was also optimized at different pH to get higher luminescence of Eu3+ doped Y2O3 nanoparticles (NPs). It was observed that pH of solution during synthesis and also its concentration affect the morphological and optical properties of Y2O3:Eu3+. The structural, morphological and optical properties were studied by an X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. XRD studies followed by Rietveld refinement confirmed the body-centered cubic structure of doped nanophosphors. It was observed that at optimized pH and polymer concentration the nanoparticles of Y2O3:Eu3+ have narrow size distribution and exhibited enhanced photoluminescent properties.