High thermal and moisture resistant Sm3+-doped Ag2GdNb5O15 blue-light-excited phosphor toward white LEDs
摘要
To advance white light-emitting diodes (w-LEDs) technology, it is necessary to identify red-emitting phosphors possessing adequate luminescence characteristics as well as favorable resistance to heat and humidity. A series of Ag2GdNb5O15:xSm3+ (0.01 ≤ x ≤ 0.30 mol) red phosphors are produced using a classical high-temperature solid-state synthesis. Phase purity is assessed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), which verified a single tetragonal lattice belonging to the P4/mbm space group. When excited at 481 nm, the obtained phosphors show red emission peaked at 600 nm, which arises from the electric dipole transition 4G5/2 → 6H7/2 of Sm3+. The best photoluminescence performance is achieved at a Sm3+ content of 0.10 mol. The phosphors show strong performance, with a high internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of 40.1%, color purity above 97.8%, and robust thermal stability. At 420 K, the emission intensity is maintained at 88.0% of the room-temperature value, and after five heating–cooling cycles, it remained at 98.7% of the starting intensity. Moreover, outstanding humidity tolerance is also observed. Soaking the phosphor in deionized water for 48 h lead to 70.3% retention of the initial emission. A white LED is subsequently assembled by placing the optimized phosphor together with YAG:Ce3+ phosphor onto a 480 nm blue chip. This device gives CIE chromaticity coordinates of (0.328, 0.307), a general color rendering index (Ra) of 84, and a correlated color temperature of 4758 K. Collectively, these outcomes suggest that Ag2GdNb5O15:Sm3+ constitutes a promising red phosphor with adequate thermal and moisture stability for potential w-LEDs application.