Mechanochemical synthesis of YNbO4:Eu nanocrystalline powder and its structural, microstructural and photoluminescence properties

In this research we prepared nanocrystalline YNbO4:Eu3+ phosphor, i.e. nanophosphor, powder using an efficient mechanochemical method followed by annealing. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that YNbO4:Eu3+ crystallizes in monoclinic structure C2/c where, from the point of view of A and B in ABO(4) compounds, cation coordination can be noted as [6+2, 4+2]. Crystallite size of about 40 nm, was estimated using Debye Scherrers equation. Raman spectroscopy with 785 and 532 rim excitation wavelengths is performed to record a majority of materials phonon modes and to provide more in depth understanding of the YNbO4 structure. Scanning electron microscopy observations indicate that the mechanical treatment during synthesis is causing non-uniformity of the powder microstructure. High resolution photoluminescent measurements upon UV excitation showed intense emission coming from f-f transitions of the europium ion with the lifetime of 0.68 ms, suggesting that the obtained YNbO4:Eu3+ is a good potential phosphor. A comparison of emissive properties with microcrystalline YNbO4:Eu3+ was made and it showed higher values of emission intensity and lifetime of the nanocrystalline sample.(C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.