Investigation of Eu-doped mesoporous titania phosphor with enhanced luminescence

A novel mesoporous TiO2 phosphor doped with Eu was synthesized through a facile hydrothermal synthesis method using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as structure template reagent. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption-desorption, scanning electron microscope, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet visible diffuse reflectance, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and three dimensional Photoluminescence. The X-ray diffraction results demonstrated that the products were anatase type with polycrystalline. N2 adsorption-desorption analysis showed that the samples were of high ordered double mesoporous structures. Eu-doped mesoporous TiO2 indicated the typical fluorescent spectra of Eu3+ ion occurred: the excited-states at 5L6 (394 nm), 5D2 (465 nm) and 5D1 (535 nm); the main emission peaks at 592 and 617 nm, corresponding with the transitions 5D0 --> 7F1 and 5D0 --> 7F2, respectively. Meanwhile, the phenomena of Eu(3+)-doped mesoporous TiO2 phosphor with efficient nonradiative energy transfer from the mesoporous TiO2 host to the activator Eu3+ ions was observed and possible emission mechanism was proposed. High dispersion of Eu in mesoporous TiO2 matrix was responsible for enhanced luminescence.