Photoluminescence and ratiometric fluorescence temperature sensing abilities of zincate phosphors

Abstract Nowadays, the fluorescent materials applying to the temperature sensing field are mostly based on the rare-earth ions, scarcely non-rare-earth co-doped optical thermometers have been invested, let alone the phosphors with dual transition metal ions. Herein, we advocate a novel rare-earth free activated fluorescent material co-doped with dual transition metal ions and adopt the fluorescence intensity ratio-based strategy to measure the temperature. Firstly, this kind of optical material possesses the feasibility to be mass-produced for its intrinsic merits of economic rationality and nontoxicity. Besides, benefitting from the different thermal properties of sensitizer and activator ions, this material is supposed to be an excellent material for temperature sensing. It turns out that this Ti4+,Mn4+ coactivated optical material possesses an excellent temperature measuring performance with the optimal absolute sensitivity as high as 3.79% K−1. What is more, the prominent signal discriminability and accurate temperature detection ability could be enabled deriving from two well-separated emission bands and excellent temperature resolution. Furthermore, the photoluminescence properties, the crystalline structure, the crystal field strength, and the viability of the Chromaticity Coordinates-based method to measure temperature are manifested in this paper as well. Overall, it is anticipated that this novel coactivated optical material with binary luminescent centers could be a promising candidate for temperature sensing, and this preliminary study would invoke researchers’ passion for exploring more dual activators-based optical thermometric materials in the absence of rare-earth ions.