Effects of synthesis temperature on the microstructures and photoluminescent properties of Eu2O3-doped Sr2−xBaxSiO4 phosphors

Abstract

In this study, Sr2−xBaxSiO4 (x = 0, 0.2, and 0.4) was used as the host material and Eu2O3 was used as the activator to produce commercial Sr2SiO4:Eu, Sr1.8Ba0.2SiO4:Eu, and Sr1.6Ba0.4SiO4:Eu phosphors by a solid-state reaction method. All the Sr2−xBaxSiO4–Eu phosphors were synthesized in the temperature range of 1000–1300 °C for 2 h. XRD patterns revealed that when different BaO contents and synthesis temperatures were used, all the Sr2−xBaxSiO4–Eu phosphors had similarly crystalline properties. The mainly crystalline phase changed from the (121) to the (103) plane as the BaO content changed from 0 to 0.2. In the case of all Sr2−xBaxSiO4–Eu powders, secondary or unknown phases were not observed if the synthesis temperature was lower than 1000 °C, and only the precursor SiO2 phase was observed in the 1000 °C-synthesized Sr2SiO4–Eu powder. This study also thoroughly investigated the effects of different BaO contents and synthesis temperatures on the photoluminescent properties of Sr2−xBaxSiO4–Eu phosphors. We show that the photoluminescent properties of Sr2−xBaxSiO4–Eu phosphors are dependent on the BaO content and synthesis temperature.