Europium-exchanged synthetic faujasite zeolites: A luminescence spectroscopic study

A series of thermally activated europium-exchanged X and Y zeolites have been characterized by luminescence spectroscopy. The distribution of Eu(III) species has been deduced for both EuX and EuY samples (held at 20 K), on the basis of the observed 5D 0 → 7F 0 luminescence emissions. For thermally activated EuY, only site S I′ was found to be occupied by Eu(III) cations. In contrast, Eu(III) species were found to be distributed between sites S I′ and S II in thermally activated samples of EuX. The effects of Eu(III) hydrolysis on the observed luminescence spectra are also discussed.