Layered Crystal Structure, Color-Tunable Photoluminescence, and Excellent Thermal Stability of MgIn2P4O14 Phosphate-Based Phosphors

Single-component white phosphors stand a good chance to serve in the next-generation high-power white light-emitting diodes. Because of low thermal stability and containing lanthanide ions with reduced valence state, most of reported phosphors usually suffer unstable color of lighting for practical packaging and comparably complex synthetic processes. In this work, we present a type of novel color-tunable blue–white–yellow-emitting MgIn 2 P 4 O 14:Tm 3+ /Dy 3+ phosphor with high thermal stability, which can be easily fabricated in air. Under UV excitation, the MgIn 2 P 4 O 14:Tm 0.02 Dy 0.03 white phosphor exhibits negligible thermal-quenching behavior, with a 99.5% intensity retention at 150 °C, relative to its initial value at room temperature. The phosphor host MgIn 2 P 4 O 14 was synthesized and reported for the first time. MgIn 2 P 4 O 14 crystallizes in the space group of C 2/ c (No. 15) with a novel layered structure built of alternate anionic and cationic layers. Its disordering structure, with Mg and In atoms co-occupying the same site, is believed to facilitate the energy transfer between rare-earth ions and benefit by sustaining the luminescence with increasing temperature. The measured absolute quantum yields of MgIn 2 P 4 O 14:Dy 0.04, MgIn 2 P 4 O 14:Tm 0.01 Dy 0.04, and MgIn 2 P 4 O 14:Tm 0.02 Dy 0.03 phosphors under the excitation of 351 nm ultraviolet radiation are 70.50%, 53.24%, and 52.31%, respectively. Present work indicates that the novel layered MgIn 2 P 4 O 14 is a promising candidate as a single-component white phosphor host with an excellent thermal stability for near-UV-excited white-light-emitting diodes (wLEDs).