Multidoped Ln³⁺ gadolinium dioxycarbonates as tunable white light emitting phosphors

Gadolinium dioxycarbonates co-doped with different visible emitting lanthanides were synthesized via a co-precipitation method using oxalic acid as a precipitating agent. Through XRD and DTA/TG investigations, the type-II hexagonal phase of the lanthanide dioxycarbonates was confirmed for all of the samples. The materials constitute of big agglomerates formed by submicrometrical particles. By varying the Ln³⁺ doping percentages and ratios and by changing the excitation wavelength the gadolinium dioxycarbonates activated with Sm³⁺, Eu³⁺, Tb³⁺, Dy³⁺ and Tm³⁺ showed tunable emission colors. Luminescence measurements were performed in order to determine: the luminescence behavior of the ions, the CIE coordinates, the CCT values and potential energy transfer. Interesting results were achieved upon exciting the samples at 351 nm and 365 nm demonstrating the possibility to obtain white emission in the dioxycarbonate matrix.