Nanoparticles of a doped oxide phosphor prepared by direct-spray pyrolysis

A gas-phase synthesis route based on spray pyrolysis with a residence/heating time of less than 0.1 s was designed to directly prepare Eu-doped Y₂O₃ phosphor nanoparticles. The average size of the phosphor particles decreased from the submicron size to around 10 nm when the concentration of the starting solution was increased. By increasing the operating temperature, from 1500 to 1700 °C, the submicron-particles were converted into a nano-particle phosphor, and their photoluminescence intensities at 611 nm (254-nm excitation) were greatly improved. This synthesis procedure has considerable potential for preparing a variety of doped luminescent nanoparticles without the need for post-treatment processing.