Broadening the Photoluminescence Excitation Spectral Bandwidth of YVO4:Eu3+ Nanoparticles via a Novel Core-Shell and Hybridization Approach

Jianhua Huang; Lu Tang; Nan Chen; Guoping Du

doi:10.3390/ma12233830

Broadening the Photoluminescence Excitation Spectral Bandwidth of YVO₄:Eu³⁺ Nanoparticles via a Novel Core-Shell and Hybridization Approach

Materials (Basel). 2019 Nov 21;12(23):3830. doi: 10.3390/ma12233830.

Authors

Jianhua Huang^{1

2}, Lu Tang^{1

3}, Nan Chen¹, Guoping Du¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China.
² Hunan Engineering Laboratory for Control and Optimization of PV Systems, Hunan Vocational Institute of Technology, Xiangtan 411104, China.
³ The Center of Collaboration and Innovation, Jiangxi University of Technology, Nanchang 330098, China.

Abstract

For many optoelectronic applications, it is desirable for the lanthanide-doped phosphors to have broad excitation spectrum. The excitation mechanism of the lanthanide-doped YVO₄, a high quantum efficient lasing material, primarily originates from the energy transfer process from the host VO₄^3- complexes to the lanthanide ions, which has an excitation spectral bandwidth range of 230-330 nm. For applications in silicon solar cells, such phosphors can convert ultraviolet light to visible light for more efficient power generation, but this spectral range is still not broad enough to cover the entire ultraviolet spectrum of solar light. In this work, a novel core-shell and inorganic-organic hybridization strategy has been employed to fabricate Eu³⁺-doped YVO₄ nanoparticles to broaden their photoluminescence excitation spectral bandwidth to the range of 230-415 nm, covering the entire ultraviolet spectrum of solar light and enabling their potential applications in silicon solar cells.

Keywords: core-shell nanoparticle; inorganic–organic hybrid nanostructure; lanthanide-doped YVO4; photoluminescence.