Preparation, luminescence, and application of LiMeBO3 borates, Me = Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Zn, Cd. Review

Abstract

The review summarises and analyses data on the preparation, structure, and spectral-luminescent properties of LiMeBO3based borates, Me = bivalent metal. These polycrystalline borates are prepared traditionally by solid-phase reactions and self-propagating high-temperature synthesis and its modifications based on a combustion reaction. Frameworks of lithium borates with alkaline earth metals, zinc, and cadmium are formed from large metal polyhedra between which there are boron-oxygen triangles isolated from each other. Doping with rare-earth and heavy metal ions leads to the formation of solid solutions which normally have defective structures. Doped activator ions often become the main part of the luminescence centre in the phosphor. The luminescent properties of ions of rare-earth elements arise from the possibility of electronic transitions between states within the 4f-configuration. The paper discusses the most likely mechanisms of charge compensation during heterovalent substitution in LiMeBO3 borates (co-doping and formation of cation vacancies). It is shown that charge compensation during the combined introduction of ions of REEs and alkali metals into the structure has a positive effect on the emission yield. The review considers the results of thermoluminescent, upconversion, and photoluminescent properties and processes and phenomena that cause them. It also explains the mechanism of resonance energy transfer from the sensitiser to the activator using the example of Yb3+→Er3+. It discusses the possibility of using the considered borates as phosphors that emit green, blue, and red light in white LEDs and as effective materials for personnel neutron dosimetry and the dosimetry of weak ionising radiation.