Synthesis and Luminescence Properties of Nano-/Microstructured Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ Microspheres by Controlled Glass Crystallization

Nano-/microstructured Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ microspheres have been successfully synthesized by a controlled glass crystallization method. Glass microspheres were first prepared via a flame spraying-water quenching technique, and then subsequent heat-treatment was used to control the crystallization. The effect of the heat-treatment temperature on the structural and morphological evolution of Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ microspheres has been investigated. It was found that the as-obtained microspheres composed of randomly aggregated crystallites and their size can be tuned from nanometer scale to micrometer size by adjusting the heat-treatment temperature. The activation energy is 578 +/- 16 kJ/mol for crystallization of the glass microspheres, and the crystallization mechanism has been proposed as homogeneous crystallization. The photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectra, the luminescence decay curve, and the effects of heat-treatment temperature and different fluxes on luminescence properties were investigated in detail. The reported method for synthesizing nano-/microstructured microspheres provides a great opportunity for evaluating the luminescence properties of Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ phosphor.