Facile chemical conversion synthesis and luminescence properties of uniform YF3 nanowires

Well-dispersed YF3 nanowires were synthesized by a designed hydrothermal conversion method with Y(OH)3 nanowires as precursor. Various equipments were used to characterize the samples. The results show that Y(OH)3 nanowires precursor was prepared through a simple hydrothermal process, which then served as the precursor for the fabrication of YF3 nanowires by a hydrothermal process. The whole process was carried out under aqueous conditions without any organic solvent, surfactant or catalyst. The conversion process from Y(OH)3 precursor to YF3 nanowires was investigated by time-dependent experiments. The possible formation mechanism of YF3 nanowires was presented in detail. Under UV excitation, 5%(mass fraction) Eu3+ or 5%(mass fraction) Tb3+ doped YF3 samples exhibit strong red or green emission, corresponding to the characteristic lines of Eu3+ and Tb3+, respectively. Moreover, the luminescence colors of the Eu3+ and Tb3+ codoped YF3 samples can be tuned from red, yellow and green-yellow to green by simply adjusting the relative doping concentrations of the activator ions under a single wavelength excitation, which might find potential applications in the fields of, such as, light display systems and optoelectronic devices.