Effect of H3BO3 on the persistent luminescence and photocatalytic properties of ZnGa2O4 phosphors

Abstract The phosphor ZnGa 2 O 4 was synthesized via H 3 BO 3 assisted solid-state reaction method. The effect of H 3 BO 3 on the crystal structure, photoluminescence, persistent luminescence, and photocatalytic properties of the phosphor was studied in detail. X-ray diffraction patterns indicated that a pure phase ZnGa 2 O 4 could be achieved at the sintered temperature 1200 °C adding H 3 BO 3 of 10 mol%. The samples exhibited a wide emission band peak at 423 nm and a narrow emission peak at 502 nm under ultraviolet excitation (254 nm). Moreover, H 3 BO 3 improved the persistent luminescence properties of ZnGa 2 O 4 phosphor effectively because H 3 BO 3 increased the electron traps and improved the depth of the traps. In addition, photocatalytic activity test shown that ZnGa 2 O 4 phosphor with H 3 BO 3 exhibited lower catalytic activities than the pure ZnGa 2 O 4 for the degradation of Rhodamine B by the ultraviolet irradiation. The reason was that the particle size of the ZnGa 2 O 4 phosphor became larger when the ZnGa 2 O 4 was synthesized using H 3 BO 3 as flux.