Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

2025

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Chaoyang Jiang

Abstract

Phosphors are luminescent materials that emit light upon excitation, which have significant uses in optoelectronics, bioimaging, sensors, security, and other fields. Inorganic luminescent materials are well known for their stability and broad applications. Among these, germanate based phosphors have recently caught attention because of their inertness, excellent chemical and thermal stability, structural flexibility, and unique properties. For optimizing the properties of the materials, impurities are added to the host intentionally, which are known as dopants. Rare earth elements are often applied as dopants because of their unique f-f transitions. Eu3+ is one of the broadly studied rare-earth dopants among these, which stands out because of its strong red emission originating from the 5D0→7FJ transition. However, there are not many studies on Eu3+ doped germanate materials. For exploring the potential applications of these materials, it is important to understand the host-dopant mechanism. In this study, a new luminescent material, ZnPb3Ge5O14 (ZLGO), has been synthesized using a conventional high-temperature solid-state method. As a dopant, Eu3+ has been employed in the material. A systematic study under different reaction parameters (reaction time, reaction temperature, and dopant concentration) has been conducted to study the crystallinity of the material. Furthermore, the optimized reaction conditions have been employed to investigate the photoluminescence properties of the material using spectrofluorometric analysis. From the results, it is evident that the material shows strong red emissions. Moreover, the findings suggest that the reaction parameters can play a significant role in the structure and luminescence properties of the material. A mechanism for luminescence has been proposed. Further optimization and studies might help in achieving tunable red emission and advanced luminescent materials for potential applications.

Subject Categories

Chemistry

Keywords

Fluorescence Germanate material Inorganic Luminescence Phosphor Solid- state

Number of Pages

63

Publisher

Uiversity of South Dakota

Included in

Chemistry Commons

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