Faclie synthesis and luminescence of hollow Eu3+-doped LaVO4 nanospheres

•Novel hollow LaVO4:Eu3+ nanospheres have been prepared by a facile and mild hydrothermal approach.•It is revealed that hollow t-LaVO4:Eu3+ nanospheres form owing to Kirkendall effect.•Hollow LaVO4:Eu3+nanospheres show excellent red luminescence, advised to fabricate red-emitting nanolasers.

A facile and mild hydrothermal approach has been developed to prepare hollow t-LaVO4:Eu3+ nanospheres in Eu(NO3)2 aqueous solution with solid LaCl3·7H2O and Na3VO4 as raw materials. The structure, morphology, composition and thermal behavior of LaVO4:Eu3+nanospheres were studied by an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer instrument (EDS), a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and a differential thermal-thermogravimetric analyzer (DTA–TG). LaVO4:Eu3+ nanospheres hollow gradually with the increasing reaction time owing to Kirkendall effect. And hollow t-LaVO4:Eu3+nanospheres show excellent red luminescence under 300 nm excitation, which could be of potential use in fabricating red-emitting nanolasers.