Inorganic Chemistry, Vol.56, No.18, 10914-10925, 2017
Forgotten and Resurrected Chernovite-(Y): YAsO4 Doped with Eu3+ Ions as a Potential Nanosized Luminophore
In the present work, a precipitation method was employed to prepare nanosized YAsO4 doped with Eu3+ ions. The raw nanomaterials have been thermally treated in a temperature range between 500 and 900 degrees C for 3 h. The XRD analysis demonstrated that the powders were single-phase nanopowders with high crystallite dispersion. Our studies were focused on relating the luminescence properties of the Eu3+ dopant to the nanocrystallite (NC) size. The average NC size varied accordingly between 15 and 45 nm. We have found that the size effect is manifested mainly in the expansion of the cell volume and broadening of XRD peaks, as indicated by Rietveld analysis. Moreover, the emission and excitation spectra, although typical for Eu3+ ions, demonstrated some degree of variability with calcination temperatures and doping concentration. To explain these differences, luminescence spectra by the Judd-Ofelt theory has been performed. a detailed analysis of