Effects of Eu3+ ions doping on physicochemical properties of spinel-structured lithium-titanium oxide (Li4Ti5O12) as an efficient photoluminescent material

Abstract

In this work we report our recent efforts on the investigation of the compositional and structural features of series of nanocrystalline Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) doped with Eu3+ ions powders, which were synthesized in a high-energy ballmilling (HEBM) process. Lithium carbonate, titanium and europium oxides were used as starting reagents. The ball-milled materials were turned into nanocrystalline powders due to the heating that was carried out in the air in the temperature range from 500 to 800 degrees C. The synthesized LTO doped with Eu3+ powders were examined by a number of physicochemical techniques: X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), absorption and emission spectroscopy (photoluminescence and excitation spectra were recorded), diffuse reflection spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS), scanning electron (SEM), transmission (TEM) and atomic force (AFM) microscopy.

Structural, morphological and photoluminescent properties were correlated and examined for the first time in this work. The obtained results suggest that LTO material doped with rare earth ions like europium could serve as a material for applications in optoelectmnic devices such as white light emitting diodes (WLEDs).