White photoluminescence emission from ZrO2 co-doped with Eu3+, Tb3+ and Tm3+

The search for high efficiency, reliable, low power consumption and environmental friendly materials for white light-emitting diodes has become a proficient field. Single-phase doped materials have been made to solve some of these challenges. Particles with color-tunable emission can be obtained by a combination of some lanthanide ions in the host material. The luminescence properties and crystalline structure of ZrO2 particles co-doped with rare earth ions (RE3+ = Tb3+, Eu3+ and Tm3+) calcined at different temperatures were studied. We aimed to investigate the emission spectrum of the particles in the red, green, and blue regions under UV excitation. The x and y coordination chromaticity - (x = 0.34, y = 0.34) and (x = 0.31, y = 0.34) - presented values close to those of the white color (x = y = 0.33). In conclusion, the ZrO2:RE3+ powers were successfully obtained by the complex polymerization method and are promising candidates for white light -emitting applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.