Systematic Treatment and Evaluation of Nitride Phosphor with Hybrid Layer Modification Against Moisture Degradation

Abstract The systematic establishment of processes for developing novel phosphor materials for diverse applications and the moisture stability of these materials are usually ignored. Herein, the experimental protocol of Sr[LiAl3N4]:Eu2+ can be divided into quantum efficiency enhancement with systematic treatments and moisture stability improvement with hybrid coating strategies. The emission intensity of nitride phosphor was greatly increased nearly twofold after Ba3N2 addition, solvent washing, and acid treatment. X-ray absorption near-edge structure revealed changes in Eu2+/Eu3+ during each procedure and the relationship with quantum efficiency. Two approaches for coating inorganic–organic hybrid layers on phosphor surfaces were proposed to overcome degradation. Hybrid coating through atomic layer deposition and sol-gel process remarkably improved the moisture stability of phosphor after a four-hour water-resistance test. Nitride phosphor with a hybrid coating layer showed excellent performance and can thus be a basis of future research for discovering potential phosphor candidates for practical applications.