Studies on organic-mediated synthesis of Y2O3:Eu3+ nanophosphors and its temperature-dependent photoluminescence properties

Abstract In this work, thermally stable Y₂O₃:Eu³⁺ nanophosphors by organic mediated combustion technique using dilute citric acid / citric acid mixed with diethylene glycol as fuel was prepared. The structural analysis establishes that these oxides crystallize into body-centered cubic structure with a space group la3. The nanophosphor prepared by citric acid with diethylene glycol as fuel exhibits better surface morphology and enhanced photoemission. The addition of polymeric precursors greatly enhanced the photoluminescence intensity of Y₂O₃: Eu phosphor by reducing the surface defects via the morphological control and improvement of crystallite growth. Investigations on temperature dependent photoluminescence studies reveal that the materials are thermally stable and the respective activation energy was 0.130 and 0.143 eV. The nanophosphor, fueled with diethylene glycol, exhibit remarkable CIE chromaticity coordinates (0.655, 0.345),in agreement with the National Television System Committee standards, and good CCT values with high color purity (96.48%), making them potential red phosphor in the fabrication of white light-emitting diodes.