Hydrothermal synthesis and luminescence properties of TiO2: Eu3+ submicrospheres

TiO2:Eu3+ submicrospheres have been successfully synthesized by a facile one-pot hydrothermal process using Ti(SO4)2 as Ti resource, d-fructose as the capping agent, and urea as the precipitation agent. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA), and photoluminescence spectra (PL) were performed to characterize the samples. The results show that TiO2:Eu3+ submicrospheres are assembled by primary nanocrystals with diameters of about 5 nm. The possible formation mechanism for TiO2:Eu3+ submicrospheres has been proposed on a hydrogen bond induced self-assembly process. Under ultraviolet excitation (λex=394 nm), these obtained TiO2:Eu3+ submicrospheres exhibit strong red emission corresponding to the 5D0→7F2 transition of Eu3+ ions.