HF‐free molten salt route for synthesis of highly efficient and water‐resistant K2SiF6:Mn4+ for warm white LED.

It has been one of the hot issues to prepare the red‐emitting Mn4+‐doped fluoride phosphors with highly efficient and waterproofness for warm white‐light‐emitting diodes (WLEDs) by the green and environmentally friendly method. Herein, we design a novel green molten salt route to synthesize K2SiF6:Mn4+ red powder using molten NH4HF2 salt instead of HF liquor as the reaction medium. The results show that KMnO4 and MnF2 could produce Mn4+ in NH4HF2 molten salt through a reduction reaction, and the resulting Mn4+‐doped K2SiF6 exhibited a bright red emission peaked at 632 nm under blue light excitation. The luminescence intensity of the as‐obtained product after immersing into water for 24 hours maintain nearly 100% of that before soaking and emission peak shape remains unchanged. The thermal stability of the sample was evaluated by temperature‐dependent luminescence spectral intensity during heating and cooling. Furthermore, a warm white‐light‐emitting diodes (WLEDs) with an excellent color rendering index (Ra = 87.1), lower correlated color temperature (CCT = 3536K), and high luminous efficacy (116.99 lm·W−1) was fabricated based on blue chip and K2SiF6:Mn4+ and commercial yellow phosphor (Y3Al5O12:Ce3+). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]