Structural and photoluminescence properties of CaNb2O6:Tb3+ green phosphor: Nanocrystalline TbB6 as a new type efficient activator

Abstract CaNb2O6:Tb3+ green phosphors have been successfully fabricated via the traditional solid-state synthesis, where the nanocrystalline TbB6 is used as efficient activator. The doping effects of nanocrystalline TbB6 on the phase composition, the microstructure and photoluminescence of as-prepared phosphors were characterized by means of Rietveld refinement XRD, FESEM and photoluminescence measurements. As a result, all the synthesized CaNb2O6:Tb3+ phosphors are composed by the single phase of CaNb2O6. The photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy shows that the maximum emission intensity occurred when the nanocrystalline TbB6 doping concentration is x = 0.06. Moreover, this phosphor keep the emission intensity remains about 43.3% of 300 K when its emission temperature increase to 423 K. Additionally, the white LED is fabricated by mixing present green phosphor with commercial blue and yellow phosphors, showing a white LED with the color temperature of 5152 K. On the basis of above mentioned, Ca0·94Nb2O6:0.06TbB6 phosphor can be applied as a potential green phosphor for high-performance white LED.