Densification and Photoluminescence Improvement of Y[sub 2]O[sub 3] Phosphor Particles Prepared by Spray Pyrolysis

Spray pyrolysis was used to prepare high luminous phosphor particles with spherical shape. In this work, we introduce a simple but effective preparation strategy for enhancing the photoluminescence intensity of particles. The key idea was the solution technique used to densify the porous structure and simultaneously enhance the crystallinity of particles. When the yttrium nitrate solution was modified using the organic additive, the nonhollow particles could be obtained but they were very porous and the luminescence intensity was not improved. To solve this drawback, we used a drying control chemical additive (DCCA) as a secondary additive. It was found that the surface area was greatly reduced and the crystallite size was increased by the use of DCCA. As a result, the densified particles showed great improvement in the photoluminescence intensity.