Spectra Properties of BCNO Phosphor Prepared by a Two-Step Method at Low Sintering Temperature

Abstract

We report a twp-step method to prepare BCNO phosphors by sintering the BCNO precursor at low sintering temperature (625°C). The crystallinity of BCNO phosphors increases with increasing sintering temperature. The structure and optical properties are related to the composition and formation degree of BCNO phosphor. Both the EELS and XPS results show the phosphor consisted of B, C, N, and O element. The high resolution TEM image indicates that the phosphor is polycrystalline in nature and is composed of several distinct nanocrystals. The emission spectra of BCNO phosphors can be easily tuned across the visible light spectrum by changing the sintering temperatures, formaldehyde volumes, and the number of moles of trimethyl borate. The decay process analysis and emission spectra fitted results indicate that carbon impurity and B-O species are responsible for the luminescent properties of BCNO phosphors. The quantum efficiency (QE) of BCNO phosphor increases from 5.8% to 49.4% with increasing sintering temperature from 550°C to 750°C, and the BCNO phosphor prepared with 0.12 mol trimethyl borate has higher QE (37.7%) than that of samples prepared with more trimethyl borate. © 2012 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.