Dual Emissive Manganese and Copper Co-Doped Zn–In–S Quantum Dots as a Single Color-Converter for High Color Rendering White-Light-Emitting Diodes

Novel white light emitting diodes (LEDs) with environmentally friendly dual emissive quantum dots (QDs) as single color-converters are one of the most promising high-quality solid-state lighting sources for meeting the growing global demand for resource sustainability. A facile method was developed for the synthesis of the bright green-red-emitting Mn and Cu codoped Zn-In-S QDs with an absorption bangdgap of 2.56 eV (485 nm), a large Stokes shift of 150 nm, and high emission quantum yield up to 75%, which were suitable for warm white LEDs based on blue GaN chips. The wide photoluminescence (PL) spectra composed of Cu-related green and Mn-related red emissions in the codoped QDs could be controlled by varying the doping concentrations of Mn and Cu ions. The energy transfer processes in Mn and Cu codoped QDs were proposed on the basis of the changes in PL intensity and lifetime measured by means of steady-state and time-resolved PL spectra. By integrating these bicolor QDs with commercial GaN-based blue LEDs, the as-fabricated tricolor white LEDs showed bright natural white light with a color rendering index of 95, luminous efficacy of 73.2 lm/W, and color temperature of 5092 K. These results indicated that (Mn,Cu):Zn-In-S/ZnS QDs could be used as a single color-converting material for the next generation of solid-state lighting.