High luminescent and thermally stable CdTe@NaNO3 composites as down-converting phosphors for white LEDs

•CdTe@NaNO3 composites are prepared by an aqueous ethanol phase assisted co-precipitation.•The composites exhibit high luminescence and good thermal stability (>85% at 100 °C).•White LED prototype emits a bright, warm, white light under driving condition of 20 mA, 3 V.•CdTe@NaNO3 composites have great potential as down-converting phosphors for LEDs.

A facile method for fabricating CdTe@NaNO3 composites by an aqueous ethanol phase assisted co-precipitation is reported. The resulted fluorescent hybrid composites show strong green and red emission centered at ∼530 nm and ∼600 nm, respectively. Due to the protection of the tight matrix, the CdTe@NaNO3 composites exhibit high luminescence and good thermal stability (>85% at 100 °C). The White LED prototype applying the composites exhibited a bright white light with good color rendering index (80.8), low correlated color temperature (4509 K) and high luminous efficacy (41.9 lm/W). The results indicate that CdTe@NaNO3 composites have great potential as down-converting phosphors for White LEDs.

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