Quantum confined Y₂O₃:Eu³⁺ nanophosphor fabricated with pre-dissipation treatment

In this paper, we fabricated and characterized a novel Y₂O ₃:Eu³⁺ nanophosphor. The phosphor consists of Y ₂O₃ nanoparticles confining an Eu. For fabricating the nanophosphor, a precursor of the quantum-confined particle was synthesized by mixing yttrium acetylacetonate and europium acetate. The synthesized precursor was dissipated into organic solvent to prevent agglomeration, and the nanophosphor was fabricated on a silicon wafer, followed by heat treatment at 500, 700, and 900°C, respectively. High-resolution transmission-electron- microscope (HRTEM) observation showed that the mean particle sizes after heat treatment at the different temperatures were 4, 20, and 30 nm, respectively. Also, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated that the crystal structure was mainly a cubic structure with a small amount of monoclinic structure. Energy-dispersion spectroscopy (EDS) revealed that the Eu component in the 4 nm-sized-quantum-confined nanophosphor was uniformly distributed within 0.4 wt.% deviation. Also, the photoluminescence properties, excitation and emission wavelengths of the quantum-confined nanophosphor, were 250 and 611 nm, respectively.