Sol-gel synthesis of YxGd2−xSiO5:Eu3+ phosphors derived from the in situ assembly of multicomponent hybrid precursors

Abstract Using rare earth coordination polymers with salicylic acid as precursors for the luminescence species YxGd2−xSiO5:Eu3+, composing the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as dispersing media, nanophosphors of YxGd2−xSiO5:Eu3+ (x = 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 0.90) with different molar ratio of Y and Gd were synthesized by the sol-gel process. Both X-ray diffraction and scanning electronic microscope show that these materials have the nanometer size of 100–200 nm. These nanometer materials exhibit red emission at 612 nm. When x = 0.5, Y0.5Gd1.5SiO5:Eu3+ shows the strongest emission intensity comparing with other molar ratio of Y to Gd.