Synthesis of SrAl2O4 and ZnO composites: Structure and optical properties

Abstract

SrAl2O4 (SAO) has been proven to be an efficient host material for photoluminescence, catholuminescence and plasma display panel phosphors in the visible region. We report here the structural evolution and the optical properties of ZnO and SAO composites by varying the concentration of ZnO. The ZnO and SAO composites are synthesized by solution-combustion technique with varying ZnO concentration from 2.5 to 20% and post calcined at 700 °C for 3 hours. Adding 2.5% of ZnO in SAO matrix, the monoclinic phase of SAO does not change. Further increasing the ZnO content from 2.5% to 15%, in addition to monoclinic phase of SAO, hexagonal phase coexists. At 20% of ZnO concentration, complete hexagonal phase of SAO is observed at RT in contrast to the reported results, where hexagonal phase of SAO only exists at and above 650 °C. Surprisingly, luminescence studies show a broad emission band in visible range similar to emission of ZnO. Detail structural and optical properties of these composites are discussed. © 2014 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.