Effect of sodium ions doping on structure and spectral properties of γ-Ce2S3 microcrystals

Rare earth sulfides are environmentally friendly and have excellent physical optoelectronic properties and coloring applications. In particular, red γ-Ce2S3 is an important and popular inorganic optical functional material. However, it has become crucial to improve the production efficiency of γ-Ce2S3 and its color performance and stability. By adding ammonium thiocyanate to the precursor, eco-friendly γ-Ce2S3 with excellent color performance was produced in this study. In addition, the effect of different amounts of Na+ doping on the final product's purity and the effect of chroma value were systematically investigated. Results show that an increase in Na+ can effectively lower the synthesis temperature of γ-Ce2S3, improve production efficiency, and optimize color performance prior to saturation. Finally, using density functional theory, the influence of the vacancy structure of γ-Ce2S3 and the change of energy band after the addition of Na+ were calculated, and a detailed experimental characterization in conjunction with density functional theory calculation thoroughly explained the significance of ion doping for reaction synthesis.