Wet chemical synthesis of KMgF 3 phosphors

KMgF3 is an important optical material. It is usually synthesized by conventional, high temperature solid state reaction or by melting the constituents together followed by crystal growth. However, fluorides are susceptible to hydrolysis and during high temperature reactions OH− ions may get incorporated which is detrimental for optical properties. A coprecipitation synthesis of KMgF3 from MgCl2 solution using KF as a precipitating agent is described. KMgF3 based phosphors incorporating a variety of activators like Ce3+, Eu2+, Sm2+, V2+ were successfully prepared. These show excellent luminescence properties consistent with the literature. A variety of phenomena like photoluminescence, thermoluminescence, optically stimulated luminescence were exhibited by KMgF3:Eu2+ prepared by the coprecipitation method.