Morphology-controllable synthesis of LaOF:Ln3+ (Ln = Eu, Tb) crystals with multicolor luminescence properties

•We reported a simple and mass-production method to synthesize the LaOF crystals.•Several morphologies were obtained by fluoride sources.•The Ln-doped LaOF exhibit strong characteristic emission with different colors.•The multicolor emissions were obtained in LaOF:Tb3+,Eu3+ samples.

In this paper, well defined LaOF crystals with multiform morphologies were first prepared via the urea-based precipitation method followed by a heat treatment. The morphologies of the LaOF samples, including nanospheres and nanorods, can be easily modulated by changing the fluorine sources. XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM, and emission spectra were used to characterize the prepared samples. Under ultraviolet excitation, the LaOF:Ln3+ nanospheres display the characteristic f–f transitions of Ln3+ (Ln = Eu, Tb) ions and give bright red, and green emissions, respectively. Furthermore, by codoping the Tb3+ and Eu3+ ions into LaOF host and varying the doping concentration of the Eu3+ ions, multicolor tunable emissions have been obtained under the irradiation of 379 nm. These results show this material may have potential applications in field-emission displays.

Graphical abstractThis work investigates a facile and mass-production method to synthesize multiform morphologies of LaOF and obtains multicolor emissions in LaOF:Tb3+,Eu3+ samples.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (198 K)Download as PowerPoint slide