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Realization of green emission in AlN:Eu2+ phosphors for LED and flexible anti-counterfeiting film applications

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Abstract

Phosphors play an extremely important role in solid-state lighting and full-color displays. Recently, it has been observed that their properties can be extensively utilized in the field of anti-counterfeiting. For the study of innovative anti-counterfeiting materials, the selection of high-quality matrix materials is indispensable. In this work, green AlN:Eu2+ phosphors are synthesized by the direct nitriding method, and their physical structure, micro-morphology, elemental composition, and photoluminescence properties are systematically investigated at different synthesis temperatures and do** concentrations. The results show that the peak emission of AlN:0.05Eu2+ occurs at 525 nm at a synthesis temperature of 1400 °C, and the fluorescence intensity retains 53.5% of its room temperature value when the test temperature is increased to 110 °C. The synthesized phosphors are dispersed in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to create a UV-excited, flexible anti-counterfeiting film. The AlN:Eu2+@TPU anti-counterfeiting film exhibits excellent light transmission, flexibility, stretchability, and water resistance. When a current of 50 mA is applied, the green LED encapsulated with AlN exhibits high color purity. The CIE coordinates of the white LED are (0.32, 0.34), with a relevant color temperature (CCT) of 5727 K and a color rendering index (Ra) of 85.9. Overall, the results suggest that AlN:Eu2+ phosphors possess significant potential for realizing multidimensional applications in lighting displays and anti-counterfeiting.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52073165, 52072227).

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, 52073165, Wanyin Ge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Antiquities Preservation Science & Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, **’an, 710021, Shaanxi, P. R. China

    Honglei Yin, Wanyin Ge, Ye Tian, Peng He, Qian Zhang & **n **e

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  1. Honglei Yin
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Contributions

Honglei Yin contributed toward methodology, formal analysis, visualization, data curation, and writing–original draft. Wanyin Ge contributed toward conceptualization, data curation, validation, and funding acquisition. Ye Tian contributed toward supervision. Peng He contributed toward SEM and XPS data report. Qian Zhang contributed toward investigation and resources. **n **e contributed toward validation.

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Yin, H., Ge, W., Tian, Y. et al. Realization of green emission in AlN:Eu2+ phosphors for LED and flexible anti-counterfeiting film applications. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 1349 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-13081-7

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