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In-situ crystal growth and photoluminescence properties of YBO3: Tb3+ microstructures

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Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) YBO3:Tb3+ flower-like and dense flower-like hierarchitecture constituted of nanoflakes are solvothermally synthesized in the presence of polyborate precursors in the mixture of ethanol and water. The growth process of the YBO3:Tb3+ flowers and dense flowers was explored based on the time-dependent experiment and the results showed that the growth mechanism follows an in situ growth rather than self-assembly process as reported previously. YBO3:Tb3+ morphologies composed of nanoflakes are achieved by controlling the concentration of ethanol and dependence of photoluminescence on morphology was studied. Remarkable photoluminescence enhancement was observed for YBO3:Tb3+ with flower-like morphology demonstrating the potential of the microstructure in future applications as a green phosphor. Such a synthetic method and growth mechanism may be applied to fabricate complex 3D architectures of other materials.

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Acknowledgements

We like to acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant #MRI0922898 for the TEM work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA

    Xianwen Zhang & Jharna Chaudhuri

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA

    Xin Zhang

  3. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, Anhui, China

    Zhi Zhao

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  1. Xianwen Zhang
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  2. Xin Zhang
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  4. Jharna Chaudhuri
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Correspondence to Jharna Chaudhuri.

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Zhang, X., Zhang, X., Zhao, Z. et al. In-situ crystal growth and photoluminescence properties of YBO3: Tb3+ microstructures. J Mater Sci 50, 251–257 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8583-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8583-7

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