Influence of amorphous and crystalline type precursor intermediates on the morphology and luminescence properties of green emitting β-Ca2SiO4:Eu2+ phosphor synthesized using a liquid phase precursor method

• High efficiency β-Ca2SiO4:Eu2+ phosphor is synthesized using various precursors.
• Precursor intermediates are amorphous and crystalline forms due to the precursors.
• Monodisperse phosphor particle grows by the amorphous intermediate precursors.
• Morphology and luminescence properties of phosphors are affected on the precursors.

Influence of precursor intermediates (PI) on the synthesis of high efficient green emitting β-Ca2SiO4:Eu2+ (β-C2S:Eu) phosphors were demonstrated by a novel liquid-phase-precursor (LPP) method utilizing (a) CaCl2–EuCl3, (b) Ca(NO3)2–EuCl3, (c) CaCl2–Eu(NO3)3, and (d) Ca(NO3)2–Eu(NO3)3 combinations as precursors. The crystallinity and morphology of the PI analyzed using X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements showed both the amorphous and crystalline type precursor intermediates (API and CPI) depending upon the metal-source materials. The final morphology and luminescence properties of β-C2S:Eu phosphors were found to be strongly influenced by the crystallinity (amorphous and crystalline) and morphology of the PIs. The APIs have led to regular-shaped homogeneous phosphor particles with higher luminescence when compared with the CPIs.