Effect of Eu, Tb codoping on the luminescent properties of Y2O3 hollow microspheres

Abstract Y2O3:Eu3+, Tb3+ hollow microspheres are prepared with different doping concentration of Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions and synthesizing temperatures from 700 to 1000 °C via a urea-based homogeneous precipitation technique with colloidal melamine formaldehyde (MF) microspheres as templates followed by a subsequent calcination process. The resulted hollow microspheres were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The results of XRD indicate that the crystallinity of the synthesized samples increases with enhancing the calcination temperature. The photoluminescence spectra indicate the Eu3+ and Tb3+ co-doped Y2O3 microspheres show five main emission peaks: three at 591, 609 and 629 nm originate from Eu3+ and two at 482 and 541 nm originate from Tb3+, under excitation of 250–340 nm irradiation. The luminescence color could be changed by varying the excitation wavelength. Different concentrations of Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions were induced into the Y2O3 lattice and the energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+ ions in these phosphors was found.