Room temperature synthesis of Tb 3+ -activated BiF 3 green-emitting nanoparticles with high thermal stability for near-ultraviolet white light-emitting didoes

The Tb3+-activated BiF3 green-emitting nanoparticles are designed for white light-emitting diodes (white-LED) applications. Bright emissions corresponding to the intra-4f transitions of Tb3+ ions were observed in the resultant nanoparticles excited by 376 nm. The effect of the Tb3+ ion concentration on the luminescent properties of the studied samples was investigated. Furthermore, the emission intensity was decided to be dependent on the dopant content and reached its maximum value when x = 0.03. Through theoretical discussion, one knows that the concentration quenching mechanism in the synthesized nanoparticles was prevailed by electric dipole–dipole interaction and the critical distance between the Tb3+ ions in the BiF3 host lattices was 21.56 A. In addition, the thermal quenching properties of the designed nanoparticles were verified by the temperature-dependent emission spectra. Ultimately, through coating the prepared nanoparticles on the surface of a commercial near-ultraviolet chip, we fabricated a green-emitting LED so as to reveal the practicability of the Tb3+-activated BiF3 nanoparticles for white-LED applications.