Strategies to host silver quantum clusters in borosilicate glass: How to mutually fulfill PL efficiency and chemical stability?

Abstract

Silver quantum clusters (Ag QCs), with broadband molecular luminescence, are stabilized in the borosilicate glasses with the [SiO₄]/[BO₄]⁻/[BO₃] blended networks. The introduction of SiO₂ in the B₂O₃-Ag₂O-BaO glasses induces the transformation of [BO₃] to [BO₄]⁻ to prevent over-growth of Ag QCs → Ag NPs and uniformly disperse Ag QCs in glass matrix. Due to the uniformly distribution of Ag QCs, the photoluminescence (PL) quenching due to cross relaxation (CR) between Ag QCs is highly suppressed, achieving PL quantum yields (QYs) as high as 67.38%. The Ag QCs activated glass based WLEDs exhibit not only excellent chemical durability but also superior luminance performances with a color coordinate of (0.32, 0.37), a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 6030 K and a color rendering index (CRI) of 89.7. Thus, the Ag QCs activated borosilicate glasses can be considered as a new type of efficient luminescent materials for various photonic application.