Novel red phosphors KBaEu(XO 4 ) 3 (X = Mo, W) show high color purity and high thermostability from a disordered chained structure.

Two novel red phosphors KBaEu(XO ₄ ) ₃ (X = Mo, W) have been synthesized by high-temperature solid-state reactions and the crystal structures were determined for the first time. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction data reveal that their space groups are C2/c. The crystalline structure is constituted of K/BaO ₈ distorted square antiprisms and distorted EuO ₈ polyhedra which form chains lying along the c-axis and two kinds of distorted XO ₄ tetrahedra. This high disorder of K/Ba which might lower the crystal field symmetry around Eu ³⁺ results in the high purity of red emission around 615 nm originating from ⁵ D ₀ → ⁷ F ₂ transition under near-ultraviolet (NUV) excitation. With increasing temperature, the luminescence of KBaEu(XO ₄ ) ₃ (X = Mo, W) phosphors decreases almost linearly with subtle alteration for the CIE coordinate. As the temperature reaches 550 K, the red emission intensity decreases to 37.3% and 50.7% of that at 300 K for KBaEu(MoO ₄ ) ₃ and KBaEu(WO ₄ ) ₃ , respectively. The analysis of the decay curves of the ⁵ D ₀ → ⁷ F ₂ emission at variable temperatures indicates the weak cross relaxation and non-radiative energy transfer between Eu ³⁺ ions. These results demonstrate that the investigated phosphors are attractive for application in high power NUV excited white LEDs.