Effects of crystal size, structure and quenching on the photoluminescence emission intensity, lifetime and quantum yield of ZrO2:Eu3+ nanocrystals

Properties of crystalline materials which depend on crystal size are of fundamental issues in the present advancement of nanocrystals. Understanding effects of crystal size on the materials' properties needs knowledge of the effects of associated parameters which give rise to the particular size. In this work, various crystal size of Eu3+ doped ZrO2 nanocrystals are synthesized by polyol, hydrothermal and simple-precipitation techniques. X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence emission intensity, lifetime and quantum yield of ZrO2:Eu3+ nanocrystals are studied exhaustively. Transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and energy dispersive analysis of x-ray of the samples are also reported. Effects of crystal size and its associated parameters viz. crystal structure and luminescence quenching on emission intensity, lifetime and quantum yield of ZrO2:Eu3+ nanocrystals are studied at length. Effect of crystal structure dominates over quenching at large crystal size while, quenching dominates over the effect of crystal structure at smaller crystal size. Fundamental importance to study the effects of crystal size, structure and quenching on photoluminescence of a doped nanocrystal is elucidated. Quantum yield of 27.72% from ZrO2:Eu3+ nanocrystal (7 nm) is also reported.