A micro-structural corrosion mechanism on the thermal degradation of BaMgAl10O17: Eu2+ phosphor

Abstract

The thermal degradation is a vital issue that restricting luminous efficiency and service life of BaMgAl10O17: Eu2+phosphor for chromogenic and illuminating fields. The effects of heat-treatment temperature on the luminescence properties and micro-structure of BAM were researched to accurately elucidate the thermal degradation mechanism. Some pieces of evidence for micro-structural corrosion were detected according to the results of PL, TL, XPS and IR. With the heat-treatment temperature increasing, a decrease of blue-emitting intensity and new red-emitting peaks revealed thermal degradation and activator oxidation. The XPS results showed the surface chemical composition changes and the micro-structure adjustment. The defects elimination detected by TL could be responsible for this micro-structural corrosion. IR results further confirmed the changes on bond forms. These were direct evidence and specific forms for the micro-structural corrosion due to the thermal degradation. Based on the relationship between micro-structural corrosion and luminescence properties, a micro-structural corrosion mechanism was given for the thermal degradation of BAM phosphor. The thermal degradation was caused in parallel by the micro-structure corrosion and the activated ion (Eu2+) oxidation.