Design of sustainable luminescent materials - from basics to real applications
Speaker: Jun-Prof. Markus Suta, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Host: on invitation of Prof. Dierk Raabe
Abstract
Luminescent materials are ever important for various applications such as sustainable LED phosphors,[1] upconversion nanocrystals,[2] or luminescent thermometers[3] to mention just a few. For all of these applications, a firm understanding of the interplay between the radiative and non-radiative decay pathways is crucial for targeted design. Within this tutorial lecture, I will demonstrate that for the case of two luminescent materials classes. In the first part, an overview of the requirements for phosphors for both phosphor-converted white-light LEDs and displays will be given. Narrow-band emitting UCr4C4-type phosphors based on the rare-earth ions Eu2+ or Ce3+ fulfill many of the desired requirements suited for these applications [4]. Despite this success, however, our economic dependence on few global export players for the rare-earth elements demands a more sustainable resource strategy. I will show how the more abundant transition metal ions Mn2+ and Cr3+ can be made competitive alternative activators [5].
Another emerging materials class are luminescent Boltzmann thermometers. They essentially rely on non-interacting emitting centers with two thermally coupled and radiatively emitting states. The luminescence intensity ratio then follows Boltzmann’s law. Trivalent lanthanoids with their narrow line 4fn-4fn luminescence embedded into micro- or nanocrystalline compounds have emerged here. The ultimate desire to design such thermometers for the application of interest (e.g. catalysis, biothermal imaging) requires, however, a careful understanding of both thermodynamic and kinetic concepts of their performance [6]. It will be demonstrated that precise temperature measurements with these thermometers are fundamentally limited to only a small temperature window and what are strategies to overcome this obstacle [7,8]. As it turns out, this approach has a much deeper connection to a fundamental understanding of the nature and control of non-radiative transition rates [9–11], which could open a whole new perspective on the sustainable control of the efficiency of inorganic phosphors quite generally.
References
[1] a) P. Pust, W. Schnick et al., Nat. Mater. 13 (2014) 891; b) G. J. Hoerder, H. Huppertz et al., Nat. Commun. 10 (2019) 1824; c) M. Zhao, Q. Zhang, Z. Xia, Acc. Chem. Res. 1 (2020) 137.
[2] a) F. Wang, X. Liu, Chem. Soc. Rev. 38 (2009) 976; b) W. Zheng et al., Chem. Soc. Rev. 44 (2015) 1379; c) C. Lee et al., Nature 589 (2021) 230.
[3] a) C. D. S. Brites, S. Balabhadra, L. D. Carlos, Adv. Opt. Mater. 7 (2019) 1801239; b) C. D. S. Brites, R. Marin, M. Suta et al., Adv. Mater. (2023), 35, 2302749.
[4] a) F. Ruegenberg, A. García-Fuente, H. Huppertz, M. Suta et al., Adv. Opt. Mater. 9 (2021), 2101643; d) F. Ruegenberg, A. García-Fuente, H. Huppertz, M. Suta et al., Adv. Opt. Mater. 11 (2023), 2202732.
[5] a) L. M. Träger, L. C. Pasqualini, H. Huppertz, J. Bruns, M. Suta, Angew. Chem. 135 (2023), e202309212; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 62 (2023), e202309212; b) ) I. Widman, G. Kinik, R. Glaum, M. Suta, H. Huppertz et al., Adv. Funct. Mater. 34 (2024), 2400054.
[6] M. Suta, A. Meijerink, Adv. Theory Simul. 3 (2020), 2000176.
[7] D. Yu, H. Li, D. Zhang, Q. Zhang, A. Meijerink, M. Suta, Light: Sci. Appl. 10 (2021), 236.
[8] B. Bendel, M. Suta, J. Mater. Chem C 10 (2022), 13805-13814.
[9] P. Netzsch, M. Hämmer, H. A. Höppe, M. Suta et al., Adv. Opt. Mater. 10 (2022), 2200059
[10] T. P. van Swieten, A. Meijerink, M. Suta et al., Light: Sci. Appl. 11 (2022), 343.
[11] a) M. Suta, Nanoscale, Advance Article (2025), DOI: 10.1039/D4NR04392H; b) B. Bendel, D. Pham Thuy, M. Suta et al., submitted to Nat. Photon. (2025).
Jun-Prof. Markus Suta is a
chemist and physicist. He is Junior
Professor for Inorganic Photoactive
Materials at the Heinrich Heine
University (HHU) Düsseldorf,
www.photoaktivematerialien.hhu.de
You can either join in person oder attend online via Zoom. The Zoom link will be provided shortly before the start via email.
Registration is neccessary.
The colloquia series is organized by of the International Max Planck Research School on Sustainable Metallurgy (IMPRS SusMet), located at the MPI for Sustainable Materials.
