Blue/blue–violet‐emitting phosphate phosphors for full‐spectrum white light‐emitting diodes

Abstract Violet light, a component of sunlight, is critical for human health, but it is usually ignored in classic white light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) that are fabricated by pumping green, yellow, or red phosphors by blue LEDs. To realized full‐spectrum white LEDs for healthy lighting, it is required to replace blue LEDs by near‐ultraviolet (n‐UV) or violet LEDs to pump multi‐color phosphors. Herein, we reported blue and/or blue–violet phosphors of Na 3 KMg 7 P 6 O 24 :Eu 2+ (NKMPO:Eu 2+ ) and Na 3 K 1– y Sr y Mg 7– y Li y P 6 O 24 :Eu 2+ (NKSMLPO:Eu 2+ ) that can be efficiently excited by n‐UV and violet LEDs. The NKSMLPO:Eu 2+ phosphor ( y = 0.1), showing a small thermal quenching, had a photoluminescence quantum yield of 64.9% and 41.2% under 365 and 405 nm excitation, respectively. Full‐spectrum white LEDs were obtained by combining n‐UV or violet LEDs with the blue/blue–violet‐emitting NKSMLPO:Eu 2+ and other commercial phosphors, which show a correlated color temperature of 4285–4705 K and a maximal color rendering index of 98.4. It confirms that the NKSMLPO:Eu 2+ phosphors can be adopted as a violet light filler for producing sunlight‐like white LEDs.