Controlled synthesis and photoluminescence of Zn3(PO4)2: Eu3+ nanocrystal via hydrothermal process

In this paper, we have successfully prepared Zn-3(PO4)(2): EU3+ phosphors with regular morphologies via altering surface active agents. XRD, TEM and SEM have been used to investigate the synthesized powders, and the results show that all diffraction peaks of the product can be perfectly indexed by an orthorhombic phase with space group Prima (62), the morphologies of the Zn-3(PO4)(2): Eu3+ phosphors did not change greatly with the surface active agents altering, no mater using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) or PTG as surface active agent, we got Zn-3(PO4)(2): Eu3+ nano-particles. We surmised that it may form the spherical micelles and then it played the role of the template and we got the products with the similar morphologies. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis was carried out to detect the products; ultraviolet - visible absorption spectra of the powder were recorded with a lambda 40 spectrometer. Finally, the photoluminescence of the products have been investigated, and found that Eu3+ ions in Zn-3(PO4)(2) have the same symmetry, the magnetic dipole transition D-5(0)-F-7(2) of Eu3+ ions is dominant, but the relative intensities are different.