Investigations on surface chemical analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and optical properties of Dy3+-doped LiNa3P2O7 phosphor

•Near white-light emitting LiNa3P2O7:Dy3+ was synthesized by solid state reaction.•Presence of pyrophosphate groups were identified by FTIR.•Binding energies of Li 1s, O 1s, Na 1s, P 2p, and Dy 3d were analysed by XPS.

Near white-light emitting LiNa3P2O7:Dy3+ phosphors were prepared by a conventional solid-state reaction method. The orthorhombic crystal structure of the phosphors was confirmed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the valence states of the surface elements were determined from the binding energies of Li 1s, O 1s, Na 1s, P 2p, and Dy 3d by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) - Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was employed to identify the pyrophosphate groups in the phosphors. Diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) show the absorption bands of the Dy3+ ions in the host material. Intense blue (481 nm) and yellow (575 nm) emissions were obtained at an excitation wavelength of 351 nm and are attributed to the 4F9/2 → 6H15/2 and 4F9/2 → 6H13/2 transitions of Dy3+ ions, respectively. The combination of these two intense bands generates light emission in the near-white region of the chromaticity diagram.

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