Effects of solvent and additive on controllable mineralization of MCO3 (M = Ca, Ba, Sr) crystals and their applications as red phosphors doped with Eu3+ ions

Abstract

In this work, a series of carbonate minerals including CaCO₃, BaCO₃ and SrCO₃ have been prepared in H₂O–ethylene glycol (EG) solution at room temperature, which further serve as hosts to prepare the phosphors doped with Eu³⁺. The as-obtained samples were characterized by means of XRPD, FESEM, and PL techniques. The experimental results reveal that the volume composition of mixed solvents and additives were crucial for producing samples with discriminating size, shape and phase. In addition, the luminescent properties of CaCO₃ : Eu³⁺, BaCO₃ : Eu³⁺, and SrCO₃ : Eu³⁺ phosphors were briefly studied by excitation spectra, and emission spectra. Remarkably, many scientific merits involved in this study might appear as follows: (1) simply changing the solvent composition or adding additives in mixed solution can realize the crystal growth of carbonates with controlled size, shape and phase; and (2) the as-prepared phosphors doped with Eu³⁺ could be directly crystallized from an aqueous solution at room temperature without subsequent calcinations.