Tunable luminescence of silver-exchanged SOD zeolite thermally treated under mild conditions

Abstract

Silver nanoclusters confined within zeolite scaffolds have been considered as promising luminescent materials. Herein, luminescent silver nanoclusters were synthesized by incorporating Ag⁺ and Cs⁺ ions into the as-synthesized SOD zeolites, followed by thermal-treatment under mild conditions, which exhibit a dynamic emission color shift (from green through yellow to red) via adjusting the silver content. Also noteworthy is that a remarkable enhancement of luminescence intensity and photoluminescence quantum yields was achieved by means of the addition of Cs⁺ ions, which may be ascribed to the reduction of accessible volume in the β-cages for luminescent silver nanoclusters caused by the introduction of Cs⁺, thereby altering the microenvironment surrounding the formed silver nanoclusters within SOD zeolites. A broad excitation range (from 300 to 450 nm) for the materials opens up potential applications for these silver-zeolite composites in NUV-LEDs.