Violet-blue afterglow luminescence properties of non-doped SrZrO3 material

Non-doped SrZrO3 material is synthesized by solid state reaction at 1300 °C in air. The violet-blue afterglow luminescence of SrZrO3 centered at 395 nm is firstly observed. The afterglow emission band (300–550 nm) of SrZrO3 partly overlaps the absorption (200–400 nm) of commercial photocatalyst TiO2 (P25). Thus, the SrZrO3 shows potential application to support photocatalytic activity of TiO2 even at night. The decay curve indicates that the afterglow luminescence of the present SrZrO3 can last less than 100 s (0.32 mcd/m2) and thus the present SrZrO3 still needs further improvement for practical application. The thermoluminescence indicates that at least two types of deep traps exist in the SrZrO3 and the depths of traps are roughly calculated to be as deep as 0.98 eV and 1.76 eV. It reveals that the short afterglow time of the SrZrO3 is not due to the lack of enough traps but the traps in SrZrO3 being too deep. Therefore, decreasing the depth of traps in SrZrO3 is our following emergency work.