Unveiling the luminescence property of Pr-incorporated barium cerate perovskites for white LED applications

The various structural and conductive attributes of barium cerate, BaCeO3 position it as a highly promising matrix for energy storage purposes. The current study illustrates that barium cerate can be effectively tailored by introducing trivalent praseodymium ions, thereby enhancing its optical properties as well. In this work, single-phased orthorhombic crystalline powders of barium cerate incorporated with Pr3+ (BaCeO3: Pr3+) were synthesized using the gel combustion procedure, followed by calcination. We conducted a comprehensive investigation into their crystal structure, vibrational characteristics, optical properties, and potential applications in wLEDs. The structure refinement indicates that Pr3+ occupies Ce4+ site, which results in the expansion of the cell and facilitates the generation of defects such as Pr Ce ′ ${\mathrm{Pr}}_{\text{Ce}}^{\prime }$ and oxygen vacancies V O ⋅ ⋅ ${V}_{\text{O}}^{\cdot \cdot }$ . By correlating information gathered from diffuse reflectance spectra with that obtained from photoluminescence spectra, we gained a deeper understanding of the electronic level structure and the mechanism of energy transfer. We successfully achieved a finely tuned cool white light emission with very low color purity (CP), a high color rendering index (CRI), and a high correlated color temperature (CCT) with a quantum efficiency of 36.3 % by exciting the material with a 321 nm wavelength. Because of the transfer of energy within activators through dipole–dipole interaction, luminescence quenching occurs when Pr3+ concentration reaches 1 wt%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the initial investigation of luminescence properties of Pr-incorporated barium cerate perovskites.