Monodispersed YF3:Ce3+/Tb3+/Eu3+ mesocrystals: hydrothermal synthesis and optical temperature sensing behavior

In this work, uniform and monodispersed YF3:Ce3+/Tb3+/Eu3+ mesocrystals were successfully synthesized via a facile hydrothermal route for the first time. The results revealed that the as-obtained products belonged to orthorhombic system and exhibited hollow spindle morphology\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\text{morphology}}$$\end{document} with an average size of 1.06 μm in length and 0.50 μm in width. The possible formation mechanism of hollow YF3 mesocrystals has been proposed. Moreover, the temperature-dependent luminescent properties of YF3:Ce3+/Tb3+/Eu3+\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\text{Y}}{{\text{F}}_3}:{\text{C}}{{\text{e}}^{3 + }}/{\text{T}}{{\text{b}}^{3 + }}/{\text{E}}{{\text{u}}^{3 + }}$$\end{document} mesocrystals are systemically investigated to explore the possible application of the presented sample in optical thermometry. As a consequence, the high sensitivity of 0.2% per K for YF3:Ce3+/Tb3+/Eu3+\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\text{Y}}{{\text{F}}_3}:{\text{C}}{{\text{e}}^{3 + }}/{\text{T}}{{\text{b}}^{3 + }}/{\text{E}}{{\text{u}}^{3 + }}$$\end{document} may make it quite promising candidate as optical thermometry. The study not only gives a reference for the synthesis of other rare earth fluorides mesocrystals, but also provides an significant advance in exploring other novel optical thermometry.