Effect of H3BO3 on phases, micromorphology and persistent luminescence properties of SrAl2O4: Eu2+, Dy3+ phosphors

Abstract

Long afterglow material SrAl2O4: Eu2+, Dy3+ were synthesized by solution combustion method, and the effects of the concentration of H3BO3 on phases, micromorphology, photoluminescence properties, long afterglow properties and thermoluminescence glow curves of the phosphors were studied systematically. Phosphor with SrAl2O4 pure phase can be obtained when the concentration of H3BO3 is 2 mol%. The micromorphology of the phosphors changed a lot due to the varied amount of H3BO3, and nanoflower like phosphors was formed when the concentration of H3BO3 is 10 mol%. With the continue increasing of H3BO3, the nanoflower aggregate together to form irregular particles with a larger size and the petal gradually disappear while the luminescence intensity shows a linear increase. The decay curves and the Thermoluminescence glow curves were also measured, and the depth of traps were calculated. The results show that with the increasing concentration of H3BO3, the trap depth increasing gradually. However, the trap depth decrease gradually when the content of H3BO3 beyond 20 mol%, which caused by the diffusion of surplus B3+ in the interstitial sites.