Photoluminescence and microstructure of Mn-doped ZnS phosphor powder co-fired with ZnS nanocrystallites

In this study, we correlated the photoluminescence (PL) with the microstructure of ZnS:Mn phosphor powders prepared by firing ZnS with MnO (1 mol%), NaCl (1 mol%) and ZnS nanocrystallites (NCs) in the range of 0–100 wt% at 600–1000 °C for 2 h in the atmosphere of 3%H₂/Ar. ZnS NCs of 10–30 nm in size were produced by co-precipitation of zinc nitrate and sodium sulfide solutions at room temperature. Thermal analysis (DTA/TG) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that the cubic-hexagonal transformation temperature of ZnS NCs was lowered to approximately 600 °C, which was much lower than that of bulk ZnS (1020 °C). PL measurements revealed that ZnS:Mn fired with 1 wt% ZnS NCs showed the optimal luminescence intensity when compared to those without or with higher ZnS NCs (>1 wt%). An appropriate amount of ZnS NCs (1 wt%) acting as the flux in the firing process was inferred to avoid the inhomogeneous distribution of Mn²⁺ as well as the migration of excitation energy to quenching sites and therefore to result in the enhanced PL intensity.