Inorganic Solid State Phosphors for Energy and Environmental Applications'

The project will develop solid state inorganic phosphors which exploit f- and d-block activator elements in two main application areas:

bright phosphors for lighting,

temperature-responsive phosphors for thermometry.

Perhaps the highest single impact of phosphors in recent years has been the development of white LEDs for domestic lighting. Current in-market devices use a blue LED source which is mixed with light emitted by partial down-conversion phosphors (e.g. YAG:Ce) to produce white light. They have delivered significant energy savings yet they remain far from optimal in terms of efficiency and light quality (colour rendering index and correlated colour temperature). We will target the development of chemically and optically stable new phosphors. Using detailed insight from structural chemistry to understand pathways for non-radiative losses and their temperature dependence, we will aim to optimise emission efficiency at typical device operating temperatures. It will involve the synthesis and structural characterisation of new ionic materials, their photophysical characterisation in parallel with selected related molecular systems for OLEDs.