Photoluminescence in disordered Zn2TiO4

In this work, the polymeric precursor method was used to obtain disordered Zn2TiO4 powders, either undoped or doped with Sn4+, Cr3+ and V5+, to be applied as photoluminescent material. The characterization was undertaken by means of thermal analysis (TG and DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and photoluminescence (PL). Previous works stated that titanate octahedra containing a short Ti–O distance show efficient luminescence at room temperature if these octahedra are isolated from each other. In the present work, the phenomenon was observed in condensed octahedra, sharing edges. The room temperature PL noticed in undoped Zn2TiO4 had its intensity increased by the dopant addition—the increase was of about 300% for V5+ doping, 400% for Cr3+ and 800% for Sn4+.