Abstract
Interest in luminescent materials has been continuously growing for several decades, looking for the development of new systems with optimized optical properties. Nowadays, research has been focused on the development of materials that satisfy specific market requirements in optoelectronics, radioelectronics, aerospace, bio-sensing, pigment applications, etc. Despite the fact that several efforts have made in the synthesis of organic luminescent materials, their poor stability under light exposure limits their use. Hence, luminescent materials based on inorganic phosphors are considered a mature topic. Within this subject, glass, glass-ceramics and ceramics have had great technological relevance, depending on the final applications. Supposing that luminescent materials are able to withstand high temperatures, have a high strength and, simultaneously, possess high stability, ceramics may be considered promising candidates to demonstrate required performance. In an ongoing effort to find a suitable synthesis method for their processing, some routes to develop nanostructured luminescent materials are addressed in this review paper. Several ceramic families that show luminescence have been intensively studied in the last few decades. Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of particles based on aluminate using the methods of sol-gel or molten salts and the production of thin films using screen printing assisted by a molten salt flux. The goal of this review is to identify potential methods to tailor the micro-nanostructure and to tune both the emission and excitation properties, focusing on emerging strategies that can be easily transferred to an industrial scale. Major challenges, opportunities, and directions of future research are specified.
Highlights
A large number of inorganic, organic, or inorganic-organic luminescent hybrid materials have been extensively explored for optical, opto-electronical, and biological applications
The goal of this review is to identify potential methods to tailor the micro-nanostructure and to tune both the emission and excitation properties, focusing on emerging strategies that can be transferred to an industrial scale
The optimized screen-printing method assisted by molten salts, which was developed by our group, can be adapted to other aluminates to produce other active materials for other emission and excitation ranges
Summary
A large number of inorganic, organic, or inorganic-organic luminescent hybrid materials have been extensively explored for optical, opto-electronical, and biological applications. Should the optical properties of luminescent materials be improved, the materials themselves should fulfil other requirements, such as having a suitable hardness, fracture toughness, and high temperature stability For this reason, research in polycrystalline ceramic materials has been growing in parallel with the development of glass-based materials. Metal aluminates doped with RE demonstrate a suitable luminescence performance due to the intrinsic properties of spinel or trydimite structures. This is the case for the alkaline earth aluminate MAl2O4 (where M = Ca, Sr, Ba) and alkaline earth hexa-aluminates related to magnetoplumbite and β-alumina. Combining improvements in efficiency and stability of phosphors is still required; the scientific community is looking for new strategies to provide a framework for the design of the generation of phosphors based on nano-architectures, increasing performance and, at the same time, wavelength tunability
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
