The long-term instability of the presently available best commercial phosphor-converted light-emitting diodes (pcLEDs) is the most serious obstacle for the realization of low-cost and energy-saving lighting applications. Emission from pcLEDs starts to degrade after approximately 200 h of operation because of thermal degradation of the phosphors. We propose a new strategy to overcome this thermal degradation problem of phosphors by wrapping the phosphor particles with reduced graphene oxide (rGO). Through the rGO wrapping, we have succeeded in controlling the thermal degradation of phosphors and improving the stability of fabricated pcLEDs. We have fabricated pcLEDs with long-term stability that maintain nearly 98% of their initial luminescence emission intensity even after 800 h of continuous operation at 85 °C and 85% relative humidity. The pcLEDs fabricated using SrBaSi2O2N2:Eu2+ phosphor particles wrapped with reduced graphene oxide are thermally stable because of enhanced heat dissipation that prevents the ionization of Eu2+ to Eu3+. We believe that this technique can be applied to other rare-earth doped phosphors for the realization of highly efficient and stable white LEDs.
Sr1−xBaxSi2O2N2:Eu2+ phosphors were synthesized using high temperature solid state reaction. The effect of Ba incorporation on the structural and luminescence characteristics of SrSi2O2N2:Eu2+ phosphors were studied. The phosphors were crystallized in triclinic crystal structure and the cell volume increases monotonically with Ba addition. The PL emission peak wavelength red shifts with Ba up to x = 0.50 beyond which no red shift is observed. The XPS analysis shows that nitrogen is being incorporated into the host lattice along with Ba addition up to x = 0.50. The as synthesized phosphors show high thermal stability. Phosphor converted light emitting diodes were realized using Sr1−xBaxSi2O2N2:Eu2+ phosphors (x = 0 and x = 0.40) showing luminance efficacies of 108 and 101 lm W−1.
The CIE chromaticity coordinates of Sr1−xBaxSi2O2N2:Eu (x = 0 and x = 0.40) phosphors.
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