Multifunctional hybrid red fluorescent nanopigments: Photoluminescence, photocatalytic and advanced forensic applications

In recent years, research was mostly centred on understanding local structure, defect engineering and excitation-dependent spectroscopy in lanthanide ions doped phosphors. In this report, a simple combustion method was utilized to synthesize the intense red emitting BaZrO₃:Eu³⁺ nanopigments. The obtained fluorescent nanopigments were examined for their structural, morphological, photoluminescence, photocatalytic and advanced forensic studies. The powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) outcomes exhibited simple cubic structure. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs revealed the hexagonal rod-like structures. Further, the particle size was estimated using Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images and it was observed to be around 45 nm. The fluorescence nanopigments were checked for their luminescence behaviours by means of excitation and emission plots. The four significant peaks of Eu³⁺ ions located at ⁵D₀→7F₀ (578 nm), ⁵D₀→⁷F₁ (591 nm), ⁵D₀→ ⁷F₂ (601 nm), ⁵D₀→F₃ (612 nm) were observed under 396 nm excitation wavelength. The fluorescence lifetime decay measurements were carried and found average lifetime 26.74 ns. The efficiency of the fluorescent nanopigments was evaluated by chromaticity color diagrams as well as internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and color purity. The quantum efficacy and color purity values were found to be 76 % and 94 % respectively. The synthesized nanopigments were also studied for their excellent photocatalytic properties. The results indicated that, the present powders can be successfully used as dye removal in the treatment of polluted water. The obtained nanopowders were also evaluated for their advanced forensic applications. The powders exhibited excellent visualization of latent fingerprints on several substrate surfaces without any background interference. The fingerprint ridge details such as Type 1, 2, 3 were identified and reported. The recorded all results demonstrated that, the synthesized nanopowders can be essentially utilized as dye removal in the polluted water, red component in white LED fabrication and also in advanced forensic applications.