Red phosphor SrY2O4:Eu3+ synthesized by the sol–gel method

SrY2O4:Eu3+ is one of the promising red phosphors for FED applications. In this work, we present the use of the sol–gel method as an alternative for the synthesis of this material with a precursor, (Sr /Y/Eu) polymerized citrate–polyethylene glycol, calcined on a high-temperature oven at 1000 °C for 2 h. X-ray diffraction results confirmed the formation of SrY2(1−x)O4:Eu2x. The superfine powder of SrY2(1−x)O4:Eu2x has a spherical-like shape and a diameter of ∼200 nm. Compared with the conventional solid-state sintering ways, this new method is very simple and has the advantages of lower calcination temperature, shorter heating time, smaller particle size and narrower particle size distribution. Upon excitation with 250 and 260 nm light, all the powder samples of SrY2(1−x)O4:Eu2x show bright red emission due to the 4f–4f transitions of Eu3+ ions, and the highest photoluminescence intensity at 610 and 615 nm was found at a content of about 9 mol% Eu3+. Splitting of the 5D0–7F0 and 5D0–7F1 transitions revealed that the Eu3+ ions occupied two nonequivalent sites in the crystallite by substituting Y3+ ions.