Investigation on facile synthesis of YAG:Ce nanoceramic powder prepared by microwave solution combustion and its application in white light emission

Cerium doped yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG:Ce) phosphor was widely used as colour converter in white light emitting diode (WLED). Such phosphor was commonly synthesised with high temperature solid-state reaction. However, powder derived from this method exhibited irregular and highly agglomerate particles. A repeated milling process to break the particles will cause additional defects formation, causing the optical properties to deteriorate. In this work, YAG doped with 0.1 mol% of cerium nanoceramic powder has been synthesised with facile mixed-fuel microwave solution combustion synthesis (MSCS). The as-synthesised powder was subjected to a post-annealing treatment to enhance the structural and optical properties. HR-XRD revealed an increased in crystallinity as well as crystallite size for the annealed powder. Moreover, FESEM analysis showed spherical-like nano-particles morphology. For optical properties, broad yellow emission centred at 534 nm was demonstrated with PL measurement and the emission intensity was increased after annealing treatment. Finally, the as-combusted and annealed YAG:Ce phosphors was fabricated into WLED and characterised with electroluminescence (EL) measurement to determine the colour properties (CIE, CCT, CRI, purity and Duv).