Synthesis and luminescence properties of Eu(III)-doped silica nanorods based on the sol-gel process

Uniform Eu3+-doped SiO2 nanorods were synthesized through a simple sol–gel method using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactant template and tetraethylorthosilicate as silicon source. X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrum, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence spectra were employed to characterize the products in detail. The nanorods have good uniformity and their diameters and lengths are in the range of 200–300 and 500–700 nm through the SEM images, respectively. The formation of the nanorods was studied by taking SEM images after different aging time. The experimental results indicate that CTAB plays a crucial role in the formation of the silica nanorods. The luminescence of Eu3+-doped SiO2 nanorods is dominated by red-emission around 612 nm due to intra-atomic 4f → 4f (5D0 → 7F2) transition of Eu3+ ions. Furthermore, the effect of doping concentrations of Eu3+ ions on the luminescence was investigated.