Synthesis and photoluminescence characterization of Ca3Si2O7:Eu2+ as a potential green-emitting white LED phosphor Original Research Article

A novel green emitting phosphor was prepared by the solid-state reaction and its structure was confirmed to be Ca3Si2O7:Eu2+ by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The photoluminescence (PL) results showed that this phosphor is efficiently excited by ultraviolet (UV)–visible light in the wavelength range from 250 to 450 nm and emits intensely green light with a broad peak at around 521 nm, causing it to exhibit a bright green emission. The effect of the Eu2+ doping concentration in Ca3Si2O7:Eu2+ on the PL measurements was investigated. The relative emission intensity increased with increasing Eu2+ concentration ratio up to 0.005, and then decreased due to concentration quenching. Based on the experimental results, it is identified that the dipole–quadrupole interaction plays the major role in the mechanism of concentration quenching of Eu2+ in the Ca3Si2O7:Eu2+ phosphor. By utilizing the principle of energy transfer and appreciate tuning the activator contents, we demonstrated that Ca3Si2O7:Eu2+ is potentially useful as an UV convertible phosphor for white light-emitting diodes.