Hydrothermal synthesis and luminescent properties of novel ordered sphere CePO(4) hierarchical architectures

The ordered-sphere CePO(4) hierarchical architectures have been successfully synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method through the controlled growth of the CePO(4) nanorods and self-assemble hierarchical structure under various reaction conditions. The evolution of the morphology of the samples has been investigated in detail. It was found that the coexistence of citric acid and cetaltrimethylammonium bromide in the reaction system plays an important role in the formation of the spherical CePO(4) hierarchical architectures. A possible mechanism of the formation and growth of the hierarchical structure was suggested according to the experimental results and analysis. The effects of the reaction time as well as the variation of the morphologies on the luminescent properties of the products were also studied.