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Luminescence properties and energy transfer in Tb3+ and Eu3+ co-doped Ba2P2O7 phosphors

Baoxing Wang*, Qiang Ren, Ou Hai and Xiulan Wu
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710021, China. E-mail: m18309293611@163.com

Received 13th December 2016 , Accepted 27th February 2017

First published on 7th March 2017


Abstract

The Ba2P2O7:Tb3+, Eu3+ phosphors were synthesized by a high temperature solid-state reaction method in air atmosphere and their crystal structures, lifetime, luminescence properties, and energy transfer mechanism were investigated in detail. A series of characteristic emissions of Ba2P2O7:Tb3+, Eu3+ phosphors were observed in the emission spectra at around 545 nm, 593 nm, and 613 nm when excited at 378 nm. The energy-transfer mechanism from Tb3+ to Eu3+ in Ba2P2O7 is determined by a dipole–dipole interaction. The emission intensity of Ba2−xP2O7:xEu3+ was enhanced by doping charge compensation Li+, Na+ and K+. The CIE coordinates of the phosphors can be tuned from blue-green through white, to yellow and finally to orange-red with changing the Eu3+/Tb3+ ratio. The average decay time of Eu3+ increases from 2.10 to 5.81 ms with the concentration of Tb3+ increasing from 2% to 8%, and reaches the maximum at 0.08, and is shortened when the concentration of Tb3+ goes beyond 8%.


1. Introduction

Nowadays, as the next-generation lighting and display systems, the white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) are attracting much attention due to their environmental friendliness, reliability, and low power consumption.1–5,28,29 In general, the manufacture of white light phosphors follows one of two routes. One approach is to mix monochromatic (red/green/blue) phosphors in the best proportion, the other approach is to excite yellow phosphors using blue or ultraviolet (UV) emitting chips.6 However, for phosphor mixtures, the strong re-absorption and nonuniformity of luminescence problems exist, this result gives rise to the loss of luminescence efficiency, properties, and multicolor emitting points. Compared with phosphor mixtures, a single phase phosphor has more advantages and overcomes these problems. So, the single phase phosphor is a very promising material.7–9,30,31

Recently, more and more scholars focus on pyrophosphate phosphor materials which have the advantage of environmental friendliness, chemical stability, low power consumption, and high efficiency, etc.10 In the rare earth family, due to the existence of 5D37F5, and 5D47F5 transition, the Tb3+ ion doped phosphors which can emit blue and green light has been prepared in previous research. Meanwhile, Eu3+ ion is a red emitting activator due to its 5D07F2 transition.6 Accordingly, the Tb3+ and Eu3+ co-doped phosphors can generate simultaneous the red/green/blue emissions. At present, by means of the energy-transfer from a sensitizer to an activator, the multicolor emitting phosphor can be usually designed under ultraviolet excitation, so by co-doping of Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions, the color emission may be tuned base on the energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+. In some literatures, the Tb3+ and Eu3+ co-doped phosphors have been used in the studies of W-LEDs, such as Sr2P2O7:Tb3+, Eu3+,6 KCaY(PO4)2:Tb3+, Eu3+,11 LaPO4:Tb3+, Eu3+, Bi3+.12

For all we know, for Ba1−xyP2O7:xEu3+, yTb3+ phosphors, its luminescence properties and the mechanism of Tb3+ → Eu3+ energy transfer have not been investigated in the previous study. In this study, the phosphors Ba2P2O7:Tb3+, Eu3+ were synthesized by solid-state reaction method in air. The crystal structure, photoluminescence properties, color tunability, the mechanism of Tb3+ → Eu3+ energy transfer, and luminous efficiency of prepared samples were systematically studied.

2. Experimental

2.1. Sample synthesis

The powder samples Ba2P2O7:Tb3+, Eu3+ were prepared by the conventional solid-state reaction in air. According to mole ratio of elements in Ba1.94−yP2O7:0.06Tb3+, yEu3+, we calculated and weighed the raw materials BaCO3 (A.R.), NH4H2PO4 (A.R.), Tb4O7 (99.99%) and Eu2O3 (99.99%), and then the raw materials were fully ground in an agate mortar. Eventually, the mixtures in the alumina crucible was put into the muffle furnace and calcined at 1100 °C for 2 h. The samples were obtained after cooled to room temperature.

2.2. Sample characterization

The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the samples were recorded via using Japan Rigaku D/Max-2200 X-ray diffractometer with Cu-Kα radiation (λ = 0.15406 nm). The excitation and emission spectra were observed by the Hitachi F-4600 fluorescence spectrophotometer. Fluorescence lifetime were investigated by using the Edinburgh FS5 fluorescence spectrophotometer. All the measurements above were carried out at room temperature.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Structure characterization

Fig. 1a and b shows the X-ray diffraction patterns of Ba2P2O7:Tb3+, Eu3+ and Ba1.88P2O7:0.06Eu3+, 0.06M+ (Li+, Na+, K+) samples, respectively. All XRD patterns are found to agree well with standard data (JCPDS 30-0144) in the Ba2P2O7. The results indicate that the Ba2P2O7 host keep the crystal structure when the M+, Tb3+ and Eu3+ in small amount doping.
image file: c6ra28122b-f1.tif
Fig. 1 XRD pattern of phosphors: (a) Ba2−xyP2O7:xTb3+, yEu3+, (b) Ba1.88P2O7:0.06Eu3+, 0.06M+ (Li+, Na+, K+).

3.2. Luminescence properties of the Ba2P2O7:Tb3+, Eu3+

Fig. 2a shows the excitation and emission spectra of Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Eu3+ phosphor. When monitored at 593 nm, several excitation peaks at 361 nm, 381 nm and 395 nm are obtained and assigned to 7F05D4, 7F05L7 and 7F05L6 transitions, respectively.12,13 In the emission spectrum of Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Eu3+ sample, under excitation at 395 nm, the feature emission peaks are observed at 593 and 613 nm. According to the Judd–Ofelt theory,14–16 the transition 5D07F1 is the magnetic dipole, and it is orange emission at 593 nm. While the transition 5D07F2 is the electric-dipole, it is red emission centered at 613 nm.
image file: c6ra28122b-f2.tif
Fig. 2 Excitation and emission spectra of phosphor: (a) Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Eu3+, (b) Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Tb3+.

As we all know, the transition 5D07F1 (593 nm) is the magnetic dipole, and it is insensitive to distortion of the inversion symmetry, whereas the electric dipole transition 5D07F2 (613 nm) is hypersensitive to it, and the intensity ratio (5D07F2)/(5D07F1) suggests the degree of distortion.16 In our experiment, the transition 5D07F1 (593 nm) was stronger than the 5D07F2 (613 nm), this result reveals Eu3+ ions mainly occupy the inversion symmetry lattice site.

Fig. 2b shows the excitation and emission spectra of Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Tb3+. When monitored at 545 nm, there are several excitation peaks between 300 and 380 nm, where the strongest one is at 378 nm (7F65D3).6,10 In the emission spectrum of Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Tb3+ sample, under excitation at 378 nm, the feature emission peaks are observed at 491, 545, 589, and 622 nm corresponding to 5D4 to 7F6, 7F5, 7F4, and 7F3 transitions, respectively.6,11

Fig. 3 shows the emission spectra of Ba1.94−yP2O7:0.06Tb3+, yEu3+ samples excited at 378 nm. When doped the Eu3+ and Tb3+ in the Ba2P2O7, the samples exhibit not only 5D4 to 7F6,5,4,3 emission bands of the Tb3+ ions but also the 5D07F1,2 emission of the Eu3+ ions. When the Tb3+ doping concentration is 0.06, we change the doping concentration of Eu3+ (the concentration of 0, 0.005, 0.015, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08, respectively), the emission intensities of 593 and 613 nm (5D07F1,2) of Eu3+ are enhanced and reaches the maximum at y = 0.06, meanwhile the emission intensity of Tb3+ is impaired. This indicated that the efficient probability is notably enhanced for energy transfer (Tb3+ → Eu3+). According to the above results, the optimal composition of Tb3+ and Eu3+ co-activated phosphor is Ba1.88P2O7:0.06Tb3+, 0.06Eu3+, which shows the strongest emission.


image file: c6ra28122b-f3.tif
Fig. 3 The emission spectrum of Ba1.94−yP2O7:0.06Tb3+, yEu3+.

From the emission intensity of sensitizer, the energy-transfer efficiency (ηET) from a sensitizer to an activator can be obtained as the following equation:8,9

 
image file: c6ra28122b-t1.tif(1)
where Is0 is the intrinsic luminescent intensity of Tb3+, Is is the luminescent intensity of Tb3+ in the presence of Eu3+. The energy transfer efficiencies from Tb3+ to Eu3+ excited at 378 nm are illustrated in Fig. 4. As a result, the energy transfer efficiency values from Tb3+ to Eu3+ were calculated to be 70%, 77.91%, 79.82%, 81.26%, and 79.07% for Ba1.94−yP2O7:0.06Tb3+, yEu3+ samples, respectively. This result reveals that the ηET increases with the increase of Eu3+ doping content, meaning that the energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+ is very efficient.


image file: c6ra28122b-f4.tif
Fig. 4 Change of the energy transfer efficiency with increase of Eu3+ concentration.

In general, for the energy transfer from a sensitizer to an activator, there are two main aspects: one is exchange interaction (the typical critical distance is no more than 5 Å) and the other is multipolar interaction (the critical distance is longer than 10 Å).17,23,24 According to Blasse, the critical distance Rc for energy transfer from the Tb3+ to Eu3+ ions can be calculated using the following equation:18,20,26,27

 
image file: c6ra28122b-t2.tif(2)
here, V is the unit cell volume, xc is the critical concentration, and N is the coordinate number of molecules in the unit cell. For the Ba2P2O7 host, V = 543.87 Å3, N = 3, and xc = 0.065 (total concentration of Tb3+ and Eu3+ when the Tb3+ emission intensity is half of that in the absence of Eu3+). According to the above equation, the value of Rc is 17.47 Å, and it is much larger than 5 Å. So the energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+ ions happen in the way of electric multipolar interaction for this system.

In order to further verify the mechanism of energy transfer for Ba2P2O7:Tb3+, Eu3+, Dexter's formula of multipolar interaction and Reisfeld's approximation are used as follows:19,21,22

 
image file: c6ra28122b-t3.tif(3)
herein, the C is the Eu3+ concentration, Is is the luminescent intensity of Tb3+ in Ba2P2O7:Tb3+, Eu3+, and Is0 is the intrinsic luminescent intensity of Ba2P2O7:Tb3+. Based on the eqn (3), when n = 6, 8, and 10 correspond to dipole–dipole, dipole–quadrupole and quadrupole–quadrupole interactions, respectively.

The Is0/IsCn/3 (n = 6, 8, 10) plots for Ba1.94−yP2O7:0.06Tb3+, yEu3+ (at excitation wavelength of 378 nm and emission wavelength of 545 nm) are shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that when n = 6, the Is0/Is value follows the linear growth law much better than n = 8 or 10. So the dipole–dipole mechanism is the mainly way for the energy transfer between Tb3+ and Eu3+ in Ba2P2O7.


image file: c6ra28122b-f5.tif
Fig. 5 Dependence of Is0/Is of Dy3+ on C6/3, C8/3 and C10/3.

The energy-transfer mechanism of Tb3+ and Eu3+ are shown in Fig. 6. Upon 378 nm excitation, few excited Tb3+ ions is excited to higher energy level through Tb3+:7F65D3 transitions, then relaxed to lower energy levels through Tb3+:5D37F5,4,3 non-radiative transitions and to its lower lying Tb3+:5D4 metastable state relaxed to lower energy levels through Tb3+:5D47F5,4,3 transitions.


image file: c6ra28122b-f6.tif
Fig. 6 Energy levels of Tb3+ and Eu3+ in Ba2P2O7 phosphor.

The rest of the Tb3+:5D3 level transfer their energy to the Eu3+:5G2 level i.e. the energy transfer. A fast non-radiative decay from 5G2 excited state increase the population of 5D0 metastable state causing enhanced emission from Eu3+ ions through 5D07FJ (J = 0–6) transitions. Finally, the characteristic emission of Eu3+ at 593 and 613 nm was enhanced.

Fig. 7 shows luminescence decay for 5D0 level of Eu3+ in Ba1.94−yP2O7:0.06Eu3+, yTb3+ (y = 2%, 4%, 8%, 10%) excited at 378 nm and measured at 593 nm. The decay times of Eu3+ can be more accurate fitted via using second-order exponential decay mode as follows:25

 
image file: c6ra28122b-t4.tif(4)
where A1 and A2 are the fitting parameters, t is the time, τ1 and τ2 are the decay times for different exponential components, I is the phosphorescent intensity, respectively. The average decay time τ of Eu3+ can be expressed as the following equation:25
 
image file: c6ra28122b-t5.tif(5)


image file: c6ra28122b-f7.tif
Fig. 7 PL decay curves of Eu3+ in Ba1.94−yP2O7:0.06Eu3+, yTb3+.

For Ba1.94−yP2O7:0.06Eu3+, yTb3+ (y = 0.02, 0.04, 0.08, 0.10) phosphors, corresponding to the 5D0 level of Eu3+, when the samples are excited at 378 nm, the average lifetimes that calculated by eqn (5) are 2.10, 2.51, 5.81, and 2.65 ms, respectively. The average decay time of Eu3+ increases from 2.10 to 5.81 ms as the increase of the concentration of Tb3+ from 0.02 to 0.08, the results confirmed the exist of energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+ ions.34,35 When the Tb3+ beyond 8% mol, the average decay time of Eu3+ is shortened oppositely, which is corresponding to the widely known concentration quenching effect happened in high concentration.

Due to Eu3+ and Ba2+ have similar radius, the Eu enter the lattice, and replace the position of the Ba2+ to form a point defect image file: c6ra28122b-t6.tif which have a positive charge.32,33 In order to keep the charge balance, it can be implemented by doping alkali metal ions. For Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Eu3+ phosphors, we regard Li+ (Li2CO3), Na+ (Na2CO3) and K+ (K2CO3) as charge compensations to stabilize the structure. The results are shown in Fig. 8. When the M+ (Li+, Na+, K+) doping concentration are 0.06 respectively, the intensity of Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Eu3+ are all enhanced. The doping Na+ enhanced emission intensity more than by doping Li+ or K+ at 593 nm, and the emission intensity at 613 nm is higher by doping K+.


image file: c6ra28122b-f8.tif
Fig. 8 Effect of Li+, Na+ and K+ on the emission spectrum of Ba2−xP2O7:xEu3+ phosphors.

Fig. 9 shows the CIE chromaticity diagram for Ba2−xyP2O7:xTb3+, yEu3+ phosphors. According to the emission spectra, the values of CIE parameters of the Ba2−xyP2O7:xTb3+, yEu3+ phosphors with different doping concentrations are summarized in Table 1. Under the excitation at 378 nm, the CIE coordinates of the phosphors can be tuned from blue-green (point a1, a2, a3, a4) to white (point a5), yellow (point a6, a7, a8, a9) and finally to the orange-red (point a10, a11) by changing the Eu3+/Tb3+ ratio. The CIE chromaticity coordinates associated with white luminescence (0.358, 0.305) of Ba1.94−xP2O7:0.06Tb3+, 0.001Eu3+ sample (point a5) are very close to an ideal white chromaticity coordinates (0.33, 0.33). However, upon 395 nm excitation, the CIE chromaticity coordinates are associated with orange-red luminescence of Ba2−xP2O7:xEu3+ phosphor (point a10, a11). Above results indicate that the phosphors show merits of multicolor emissions in the visible region when excited by a single wavelength light.


image file: c6ra28122b-f9.tif
Fig. 9 CIE coordinates of the Ba2−xyP2O7:xTb3+, yEu3+ phosphors.
Table 1 CIE chromaticity coordinates of the Ba2−xyP2O7:xTb3+, yEu3+ phosphors
Point Sample (λex = 378 nm) CIE (x, y)
a1 Ba1.98P2O7:0.02Tb3+ (0.245, 0.244)
a2 Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Tb3+ (0.264, 0.303)
a3 Ba1.92P2O7:0.08Tb3+ (0.271, 0.368)
a4 Ba1.75P2O7:0.25Tb3+ (0.291, 0.437)
a5 Ba1.939P2O7:0.06Tb3+, 0.001Eu3+ (0.358, 0.305)
a6 Ba1.935P2O7:0.06Tb3+, 0.005Eu3+ (0.412, 0.289)
a7 Ba1.92P2O7:0.06Tb3+, 0.02Eu3+ (0.459, 0.304)
a8 Ba1.9P2O7:0.06Tb3+, 0.04Eu3+ (0.473, 0.312)
a9 Ba1.88P2O7:0.06Tb3+, 0.06Eu3+ (0.496, 0.322)
a10 Ba1.985P2O7:0.015Eu3+ (λex = 395 nm) (0.604, 0.395)
a11 Ba1.94P2O7:0.06Eu3+ (λex = 395 nm) (0.616, 0.383)


4. Conclusion

In summary, the Ba2−xyP2O7:xTb3+, yEu3+ phosphors were synthesized by a solid-state reaction at 1100 °C for 2 h. The Ba2−xyP2O7:xTb3+, yEu3+ phosphors can be effectively excited at 378 nm and have several emission peaks centered at 545 nm, 593 nm and 613 nm. The CIE coordinates of the phosphors can be tuned from blue-green to white, yellow and finally to the orange-red by changing the Eu3+/Tb3+ ratio. The emission intensity of Ba2−xP2O7:0.06Eu3+ was enhanced by doping charge compensation M+ (Li+, Na+, K+). The energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+ in Ba2P2O7 was demonstrated to be dipole–dipole interaction mechanism. The energy transfer efficiency in Tb3+–Eu3+ was approximately 81.26% at x = 0.06, y = 0.06, and for the Ba1.94−yP2O7:0.06Eu3+, yTb3+ (y = 0.02, 0.04, 0.08, 0.10) phosphors, under excitation at 378 nm, the average lifetimes of Eu3+ were determined to be 2.10, 2.51, 5.81, and 2.65 ms, respectively.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Innovation of Science and Technology Plan Projects of Shaanxi Province, China (Grant no. 2013KTDZ03-02-01), and by the Shaanxi University of Science and Technology Graduate Student Innovation Fund.

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