Morphologies and Luminescence Properties of SrZnO₂ Microstructure

The SrZnO₂ of beardlike and sheetlike nanobundles, rod and treelike nanostructures have been synthesized by a citrate-gel combusting synthesis approach. As-prepared SrZnO₂ shows orthorhombic structure with Pnma space group and unit cell with the lattice parameters: a = 5.830 Å, b = 3.340 Å and c = 11.348 Å. By increasing the sintering temperature, the beardlike nanobundle gradually dissolved to form microrods and treelike microstructure. Citrate acid exerts a major influence in directing the formation of these unique SrZnO₂ microstructures. These materials were analyzed for their use to luminescence materials. The as-made samples exhibit an efficient absorption and excitation band in the UV spectral region (centered at 380 nm). In the same time, the samples of with different morphologies showed a broad yellow emission peak centered at ∼545 nm which should been associated with the composition and morphologies of sample or from the oxygen vacancies of semiconductor SrZnO₂. The material may be used as novel conversion phosphors or host material of phosphor for white-light LEDs.