Role of surface coating in ZrO2/Eu3+ nanocrystals

The sol-emulsion-gel method is used for the preparation of Eu3+ ion-doped and coated ZrO2 nanocrystals. Here, we report the role of surface coating, dopant concentration, and temperature of heating in the modification of their crystal structure and photoluminescence properties. It is found that the volume fraction of the tetragonal phase increases from 28.08 to 91.56% because of surface coating. This is a significant modification of the crystal phase in ZrO2 nanocrystals due to surface coating by Eu2O3. It is found that the photoluminescence properties are sensitive to the crystal structure, which is again controlled by surface coating, concentration, and heating temperature. It is found that the decay time (tau) of Eu-doped ZrO2 nanocrystals increases with increasing the concentration of dopant and with increasing the temperature of heating because of changes in their crystal phase. The emission intensity of the peak at 611-617 nm (5D0 --> 7F2) of the Eu3+ ion-activated ZrO2 nanocrystals (doped and coated) is also found to be sensitive to the nanoenvironment. The average decay times are 770 and 488 mus for 1100 degrees C-heated 1.0 mol % Eu2O3-doped and coated ZrO2 nanocrystals, respectively. Our analysis suggests that the site symmetry of the ions plays the most important role in the modifications of the radiative and nonradiative relaxation mechanisms as a result of the overall photoluminescence properties.