Effect of alkali metal ions co-doping on the structure and luminescent properties of phosphor Zn3(BO3)2:Eu3+

• Novel Zn3(BO3)2:Eu3+ phosphor has been synthesized by solid-state reaction method.
• The co-doped effects of alkali-metal ions on the luminescence properties for Zn3(BO3)2:Eu3+ phosphors are discussed.
• The volume compensation and the equilibrium of mole number can be taken into consideration by charge compensation (CC) approaches.

A series of the Zn3(BO3)2:Eu3+ without or with alkali metal ions doping at a low sintering temperature were synthesized by the solid-state reaction method. The XRD pattern shows that all samples exhibit Zn3(BO3)2 crystalline phase. The samples co-doped with alkali metal ions have better crystallinity compared with the un-compensated ones. The different charge compensation approaches have no influence on the shape and position of the emission and excitation spectra. However, the luminescent intensity of samples has been obviously enhanced with different alkali metal ions co-doping. The introduction of Li+ can increase the red emission of Eu3+ compared with the others. Thus, the volume compensation and the equilibrium of mole number can be taken into consideration by charge compensated (CC) approaches.