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The Radiative Decay of Green and Red Photoluminescent Phosphors: An Undergraduate Kinetics Experiment for Materials Chemistry

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C. Degli Esposti and L. Bizzocchi

Dipartimento di Chimica "G. Ciamician", Università di Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy

J. Chem. Educ., 2008, 85 (6), p 839

DOI: 10.1021/ed085p839

Publication Date (Web): June 1, 2008

Abstract

This article describes a laboratory experiment that allows the students to investigate the radiative properties of the green and red emitting phosphors that are employed in commercial fluorescent lamps. Making use of a spectrofluorometer, students first record the emission spectrum of a fluorescent lamp under normal operating conditions, and then they study the photoluminescent powder that coats the inner surface of commercial fluorescent tubes. The emissions of the green (Tb³⁺-activated) and red (Eu³⁺-activated) phosphors are optimized, and the respective decay curves are recorded and analyzed using the kinetic model for first-order, consecutive reactions. Students verify that the radiative decay of the green phosphor can be well reproduced using a mono-exponential function, whereas a bi-exponential function must be employed to fit properly the faster decay of the red phosphor, which exhibits a pronounced maximum ca. 130 μs after the end of the excitation pulse. This experiment has been developed for an upper-level undergraduate audience, and it is suitable for advanced physical-chemistry courses.

Keywords (Audience):

Upper-Division Undergraduate

Keywords (Domain):

Laboratory Instruction

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Hands-On Learning / Manipulatives

Keywords (Subject):

Fluorescence Spectroscopy

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This article has been cited by 1 ACS Journal articles (1 most recent appear below).

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- A Mechanistic Study of Terbium Phosphorescence Quenching
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  Journal of Chemical Education2009 86 (5), 613
  An EDTA complex of terbium(III) was evaluated via phosphorescence spectroscopy in the presence of varying quantities of quencher TEMPOL. Both steady-state excitation via a xenon lamp and pulsed excitation via a nitrogen laser were used to allow the ...
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