In situ hydrothermal synthesis of YVO4 nanorods and microtubes using (NH4)0.5V2O5 nanowires templates

YVO4 nanorods/microtubes have been synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction of (NH4)0.5V2O5 nanowires templates with Y3+ at pH=5–6. The nanorods have a diameter of 140–250 nm and a length up to 50 μm, whereas the microtubes have outer diameters in the range of 1.2–1.6 μm and wall thickness of ∼0.5 μm. They are composed of self-assembled nanoparticles, which suggests a self-convertible template route to the one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures. The method probably becomes a general approach to preparing 1D nanostructures of rare-earth orthovanadates. The photoluminescence spectrum of the YVO4:Eu nanorods/ microtubes shows the four strong luminescence peaks at 594, 619, 645 and 698 nm under the excitation of 316 nm.