In situ chemical co-precipitation synthesis of YVO4:RE (RE = Dy3+, Sm3+, Er3+) phosphors by assembling hybrid precursors

YVO4:RE (RE = Dy3+, Sm3+, Er3+) were prepared via an in situ chemical co-precipitation technology, and the assembly process of hybrid precursors was as follows: using rare earth coordination polymers with salicylic acid as precursors and composing with the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as dispersing media. Their microstructure and micromorphology have been analyzed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which indicate that there exist some novel cobblestone-like microcrystalline particles. All the doped rare earth ions showed their characteristic emissions in YVO4 hosts. The concentration quenching all appeared of the three dopant ions and the optimum concentrations for Dy3+, Er3+, Sm3+ were determined to be 2, 3, 1 mol% in yttrium vanadate particles, respectively.