Highly-yielded Y₂O₃:Eu^3＋@SiO₂ yard-long-bean-structured nanocables have been successfully synthesized by a coaxial electrospinning technique using Y₂O₃, Eu₂O₃, C₈H₂₀O₄Si, absolute ethanol, PVP and DMF as the starting materials, and characterized by thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and fluorescence spectroscopy techniques. The as-prepared nanocables with a mean diameter of 200 nm had a crystalline spherical-like Y₂O₃:Eu^3＋ core of an average diameter of 150 nm and an amorphous SiO₂ shell of 25 nm in thickness. The length of the nanocables was longer than 300 μm. Spherical-like Y₂O₃:Eu^3＋ particles with uniform morphology formed of the core of the nanocables were orderly arranged along with the length direction of the nanocables. The nanocables emitted bright red light of 614 nm in wavelength of Eu^3＋characteristic emission under the excitation of 246 nm ultraviolet ray. The formation mechanism of these nanocables was preliminarily discussed.

Key words: coaxial electrospinning, yard-long-bean-structured nanocable, Y₂O₃, Eu₂O₃, SiO₂