Comparative study on luminescent properties of LiLa2BO5:Eu3+ phosphors synthesized with different methods

► LiLa2−xEuxBO5 phosphors were synthesized by a sol-gel and the solid-state methods. ► The effects of temperature and particle morphology on the PL intensity were studied. ► The intensity of the sol-gel derived is about 80% of solid state derived phosphor. ► Obtained phosphors have higher PL intensities than that from the CaS:Eu2+ phosphor. Motivated by the need for new red phosphors for solid-state lighting applications Eu3+-doped LiLa2BO5 phosphor was synthesized with two methods: sol–gel (SG) and conventional solid-state reaction (SS) method. The synthesized deep red phosphor was characterized by XRD, PL and SEM, respectively. The phosphor has two main excitation peaks located at 395 and 468nm, which match the emission of UV and blue LED, respectively. The emission intensity increased with increasing Eu3+ concentration, and then decreased due to concentration quenching. The intensity of the sol–gel (SG) derived phosphor by monitoring at the excitation wavelength of 395nm is about 80% of solid-state derived phosphor. In comparison with the commercial red phosphor (CaS:Eu2+), our synthesized LiLa2BO5:Eu phosphor shows higher PL intensity, when excited with 468nm light. The intense red emission of LiLa2BO5 under 395 and 468nm excitation suggests that this phosphor is promising candidate as red-emitting phosphor for near-UV/blue-GaN based light-emitting diodes for white light generation.