Realization of non-rare earth doped blue-emitting phosphor Ba2Y5B5O17: Sb by selective site excitation, and its application in n-UV excited wLEDs

Highlights: • Non-rare earth doped phosphors were synthesized. • Tunable emission with wavelength above 100 nm in BYBO: 3 at.% Sb phosphors is realized the first time. • Blue light emission in BYBO: 3 at.% Sb is realized by selecting lattice site occupancy excitation. • High CRI (91.25) and low CCT (3816 K) wLED was packaged by combining purchased phosphor and our BYBO: 3 at.% Sb phosphor. In this work, a new series of non-rare earth doped Ba₂Y₅B₅O₁₇: x at.% Sb³⁺ (BYBO: x at.% Sb) blue light phosphors were synthesized by high temperature solid state method. The structural analysis supported that Sb³⁺ can occupy four different kinds of lattice sites in BYBO crystal structure. By selecting the excitation conditions for Sb³⁺ ions at different lattice sites, a wide range of emission wavelength tuning exceeding 100 nm can be achieved. Our experimental results demonstrated that, by using 370 nm near-ultraviolet (n-UV) light to excite the Sb³⁺ ions at the Y4 (Sb1) lattice occupancy in BYBO: 3 at.% Sb, the blue light emission can be realized. White light emitting diode (wLED) was fabricated by combining 370 nm n-UV chip with purchased (Sr, Ba)₂SiO₄: Eu, (Sr, Ca)AlSiN₃: Eu and synthesized BYBO: 3 at.% Sb phosphor. From the measured electroluminescence (EL) spectrum of the packaged wLED, the correlated color temperature (CCT) and color rendering index (CRI) were calculated to be 3816 K and 91.25, respectively. These results indicated that BYBO: 3 at.% Sb can serve as excellent blue phosphor for preparing n-UV excited wLED with low CCT and high CRI value.