Synthesis, luminescent properties and white light emitting diode
application of Ba
7
Zr(PO
4
)
6
:Eu
2þ
yellow-emitting phosphor
Chenxia Li
a
, Jian Dai
a
, Degang Deng
b,
n
, Changyu Shen
a
, Shiqing Xu
b,
n
a
College of Optical and Electronic Technology, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
b
College of Materials Science and Engineering, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
article info
Article history:
Received 29 May 2015
Received in revised form
28 June 2015
Accepted 29 June 2015
Available online 2 July 2015
Keywords:
Ba
7
Zr(PO
4
)
6
:Eu
2þ
Phosphors
White LEDs
Luminescence
abstract
A yellow-emitting phosphor, Eu
2þ
-activated Ba
7
Zr(PO
4
)
6
phosphor was synthesized by solid-state re-
action method and the luminescence properties were investigated. The phosphor exhibited strong ab-
sorption in near ultraviolet (n-UV) region, which matched well with the n-UV chip. Upon excitation at
370 nm, the Ba
7
Zr(PO
4
)
6
:Eu
2þ
phosphor has a broad yellow emission band with a peak at 585 nm and a
full width at half maximum of 178 nm wider than that of the commercial yellow-emitting YAG:Ce
3þ
phosphor. The mechanism of concentration quenching of Eu
2þ
ions in Ba
7
Zr(PO
4
)
6
phosphor is verified
to be energy transfer among the nearest neighbor Eu
2þ
ions. The CIE value and temperature dependence
of photoluminescence were also discussed. Furthermore, a white-LED was fabricated using a 370 nm UV
chip pumped with a blend of phosphors consisting of yellow-emitting Ba
6.97
Zr(PO
4
)
6
:0.03Eu
2þ
and blue-
emitting BaMgAl
10
O
17
:Eu
2þ
phosphors, which achieved a CIE of (0.3329, 0.3562) with a color-rendering
index of 86.4 around the CCT of 5487 K.
& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Compared to conventional lighting sources, white light-emit-
ting diodes (LEDs) have more advantages such as energy-saving,
compactness, long operational lifetime and environmentally be-
nign, and so far they have been attracted much attention [1,2].
From the viewpoint of fabrication, white LEDs can be synthesized
in three ways: (a) a combination of red, green, and blue-emitting
LED chips; (b) a combination of a blue LED chip with a yellow-
emitting phosphor (such as YAG:Ce
3þ
); (c) a blend of multicolor-
emitting phosphors excited by near ultraviolet chips [3]. The way
(a) has the disadvantages that individual colored LEDs responds
differently to drive current, operating temperature and the con-
trols needs for color consistency add expense. As to the way (b),
the fabricated LED always results in a low color rendering index
and a high correlated color temperature due to the deficiency of
red spectrum component in the phosphor. While the way (c) can
obtain a stable emission color and good color rendering index
[4,5]. Therefore, developing new multicolor-emitting phosphors
that can be effectively excited by n-UV light is critically important.
Among them, yellow-emitting phosphors have played a key role in
the fabrication of white LEDs and become a research hotspot.
Hence, many novel yellow-emitting phosphors excited by n-UV
light have been reported, such as Ba
2
Gd(BO
3
)
2
Cl:Eu
2þ
[6],
NaScSi
2
O
6
:Eu
2þ
[7],Sr
1.75
Ca
1.25
(PO
4
)
2
:Eu
2þ
[8],Y
2
(CN
2
)
3
:Ce
3þ
[9]
and NaZnPO
4
:Mn
2þ
[10].
Phosphate-based phosphors have emerged as an excellent lu-
minescence materials because of environment benign, stable
physical and chemistry properties, cheap starting materials and
high brightness [11]. The Eu
2þ
ions, as one of the most widely
used activators in phosphors, have been extensively studied.
Eu
2þ
-doped phosphors have a broad excitation band covering the
emissions from the n-UV chips and a broad emission band ranging
from blue region to red region due to the parity-allowed 4f–5d
transitions. Thus, Eu
2þ
-doped phosphate phosphors have been
proved to be a promising material for application in white LEDs,
Such as Eu
2þ
-doped Ca
4
(PO
4
)
2
O red-emitting phosphor [12],
Eu
2þ
-doped Ca
6
BaP
4
O
17
yellow-emitting phosphor [13] and
Eu
2þ
-doped RbBaPO
4
blue-emitting phosphor [14]. As we known,
eulytite compound with the general formula M
7
Zr(PO
4
)
6
(M¼ Ca,
Sr, Ba) have a cubic structure with space group of I-43d(220). The
structure has a three-dimensional network formed by mixed
metal (Ba/Zr)–oxygen octahedra connected by edge sharing and
forming corrugated chains. The octahedra are additionally linked
by independent PO
4
tetrahedra groups by sharing corners [15].
Such a structure is favorable to be a luminescent material. For
example, Qin et al. have concluded that M
7
Zr(PO
4
)
6
(M¼ Ca, Sr, Ba)
is an unusual self-activated luminescence compound, due to the
Zr
4þ
to O
2
charge transfer transitions [16], Zhang et al. have
reported the photoluminescence properties of Sr
7
Zr(PO
4
)
6
:Eu
3þ
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/physb
Physica B
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2015.06.027
0921-4526/& 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
n
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: dengdegang@cjlu.edu.cn (D. Deng), sxucjlu@163.com (S. Xu).
Physica B 475 (2015) 105–109