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Green photoluminescence in Tb3+-doped ZrO2 nanotube arrays

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Abstract

Tb3+-doped ZrO2 nanotube arrays were fabricated by anodizing Zr–Tb (3 at.% Tb) alloy, which was prepared through a powder metallurgical method. The effects of electrolyte and annealing temperature on the morphologies, structures, photoluminescence properties and decay times of the nanotube arrays were studied. The nanotubes prepared from aqueous electrolyte is of tetragonal ZrO2, while the nanotubes prepared from organic electrolyte (formamide and glycerol) is of amorphous structure that can be converted to monoclinic ZrO2 after annealing at 600 °C. Under an excitation wavelength of 263 nm, the nanotubes annealed at 400 °C display a strong photoluminescence emission at 544 nm which is associated with 5D4–7F5 transitions of Tb3+. The tetragonal ZrO2 in the nanotubes was revealed to be beneficial for the improvement of the luminous efficiency and decay time.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51272064), Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province of China (E2013202032), the Talent Training Project of Hebei Province (2013) and the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT13060). This work was financially supported by the University of Central Florida through a startup Grant (No. 20080741).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, 300130, China

    Ning Fu, Xixin Wang, Jianling Zhao, Xinghua Zhang, Jing Lin, Liyuan Gong & Mingli Wang

  2. Nanoscience Technology Center, University of Central Florida, 12424 Research Parkway Suite 423, Orlando, FL, 32826, USA

    Limin Guo & Yang Yang

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32826, USA

    Yang Yang

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  1. Ning Fu
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Correspondence to Jianling Zhao or Yang Yang.

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Fu, N., Wang, X., Guo, L. et al. Green photoluminescence in Tb3+-doped ZrO2 nanotube arrays. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 28, 7253–7258 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-017-6407-7

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