Lu(OH)CO 3 :Ln 3+ /LuBO 3 :Ln 3+ (Ln = Eu, Tb) nanospheres have been synthesized by the soft chemistry route. This synthesis process does not require the addition of any organic solvents and surfactant. The whole process consists of homogeneous precipitation and hydrothermal process. First, uniform spherical Lu(OH)CO 3 :Ln 3+ (Ln = Eu, Tb) nanoparticles with the sizes of 70 nm were obtained by the classic urea-based homogeneous precipitation. Then, with the above Lu(OH)CO 3 :Ln 3+ (Ln = Eu, Tb) nanosphere as the precursor, the composites of Lu(OH)CO 3 :Ln 3+ /LuBO 3 :Ln 3+ (Ln = Eu, Tb) nanospheres formed by the simple hydrothermal process. The phases, morphologies, as well as the luminescence properties of as-prepared samples were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence. Under a short wavelength excitation, the down-conversion Eu 3+ and Tb 3+ -doped LuBO 3 samples were investigated and explained.
A hard template strategy is developed to fabricate the LuBO3: Eu3+/Tb3+ hollow microspheres using a novel multi-step transformation synthetic route for the first time with polystyrene (PS) spheres as the template, followed by the combination of a facile
homogeneous precipitation method, an ion-exchange process, and a calcination process. The results show that the as-obtained LuBO3: Eu3+/Tb3+ hollow spheres have a uniform morphology with an average diameter of 1.8 μm and shell thickness of about 80
nm. When used as luminescent materials, the emission colors of LuBO3: Eu3+/Tb3+ samples can be tuned from red, through orange, yellow and green–yellow, to green by simply adjusting the relative doping concentrations of the activator ions under the excitation
of ultraviolet (UV) light, which might have potential applications in the field such as light display systems and optoelectronic devices.