Tricolor white emitting phosphor co-doped with Eu, Dy in SiO2 matrix

A Eu, Dy co-doped SiO₂ matrix, white emitting phosphor was prepared by the sol-gel technique. Strong red, green and blue emissions located at 618 nm, 573 nm and 400–550 nm were observed under UV laser excitation at room temperature. Such techniques as FT-IR and TGA-DSC were used to measure the microstructure of the luminescent material. The influence of the preparation techniques on the luminescence property of the Eu, Dy co-doped SiO₂ matrix, such as anneal temperature, anneal time, dried atmosphere and the components of the matrix, was systematically studied, and the luminescence mechanism was interpreted. The red emission is the strongest when annealed at 750°C. However, blue emission appears when annealed at 700°C and is the intensest at 900°C. For the samples dried in vacuum, Eu³⁺ is more easily deoxidized to Eu²⁺ at lower temperatures, because the samples dried in the air compared with that dried in vacuum need higher temperature to form network structures. Only the SA and SAB matrix annealed at 850°C had blue emission in the four matrices (SA, SAB, SB, S) xerogel and the emission in the SAB matrix was stronger than that in the SA matrix. This may be due to the eutectic phase formed by the oxide boron, alkaline oxide and alumina in the SAB matrix, which constructs network structures and stabilizes the emission center and enhances the blue emission. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 20876125) and the Technology Research Project of Higher Education Office in Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 08JK451)