Glass network engineering of yellow-emitting Ba2Sc2B4O11:Ce3+ glass ceramics for full-spectrum lighting

Solid-state lighting (SSL) has revolutionized global illumination with its high efficiency, long lifespan, and energy savings. Currently, the mainstream SSL scheme pairs blue LED/LD chips (450-460 nm) with YAG:Ce³⁺ phosphors to produce cool white light—but this approach suffers from discontinuous spectra (leading to dull colors) and chronic blue light exposure, which harms eye health and circadian rhythms. To meet the demand for healthier, higher-quality lighting, violet-light-excited (400-420 nm) full-spectrum SSL has become a focus: it complements missing violet spectral components, avoids blue light risks, and boasts higher external efficiency than near-ultraviolet (NUV) schemes.

Yet a major bottleneck remains: existing yellow luminescent materials perform poorly under violet excitation. For example, the widely used YAG:Ce³⁺ sees its PLQY drop from 97% (blue excitation) to 75% (violet excitation), while the previously reported BSB:Ce³⁺ phosphor only achieves a modest 53.3% PLQY due to low crystallinity and defects.

To overcome these limitations, a team led by Prof. Daqin Chen from China Fujian Normal University and Prof. Xinyue Li from Hangzhou Dianzi University turned to glass network engineering. “Traditional high-temperature solid-state synthesis often produces amorphous phases in BSB phosphors, reducing luminescence efficiency,” explained Prof. Chen. “Borate glasses are ideal matrices for growing BSB NCs—we hypothesized that regulating the glass network structure could solve the crystallinity and defect issues.”

The team designed precursor glasses with the composition xB₂O₃-2BaO-Sc₂O₃-yCeO₂ (x = 2.0-3.0, y = 0.01-0.15) via melt-quenching, then induced in-situ crystallization at 900℃. By adjusting the B₂O₃ content, they optimized the [BO₃]/[BO₄] ratio: this transformation shifted the glass network from a loose layered structure to a moderately compact framework, creating preferential sites for heterogeneous nucleation. XRD, TEM, and XPS characterizations confirmed the formation of well-crystallized BSB NCs (crystallinity up to 92.3%) with uniform Ce³⁺ distribution (occupying Ba²⁺ sites in the BSB lattice).

The team published their work in Journal of Advanced Ceramics on September 8, 2025.

The result was a game-changer: BSB:Ce³⁺ GCs exhibited a record PLQY of 95.0% under 410 nm violet excitation, emitting bright yellow light centered at 540 nm (full width at half maximum, FWHM=127 nm)—perfectly matching full-spectrum lighting requirements. “This PLQY is far ahead of other violet-light-excitable yellow luminescent materials,” noted Prof. Li. “We achieved this by enhancing radiative transition rates and suppressing non-radiative losses through high crystallinity and the protective glass matrix.”

The GCs also demonstrated exceptional stability: at 150℃, their PL intensity retained 43% of the room-temperature value (vs. 29% for BSB phosphors); under 85℃/85% relative humidity for 20 days, they maintained 92% of initial intensity; and after 30 days of water immersion, only 7% intensity was lost (vs. 56% for phosphors).

When integrated into lighting devices—paired with 410 nm violet LED chips and commercial blue-cyan/red phosphors—the BSB:Ce³⁺ GCs produced full-spectrum white light with a CRI of 95.2 (all R1-R15 values >90) and a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 3902 K, closely resembling natural sunlight. For LD-based lighting (critical for high-brightness scenarios), the GC-LD device maintained stable emission for 1800 seconds at 105 mW/mm², with a CRI of 93.3.

“This work bridges the gap between material design and practical SSL applications,” Prof. Chen concluded. “Our glass network engineering strategy can be extended to other luminescent glass ceramics, paving the way for next-generation healthy lighting.”

Other contributors include Shuangyin Zhu, Shilin Jin, Ziyi Hu, Jinfeng Qiu, Jiamin Chen from the School of College of Physics and Energy at Fujian Normal University in Fujian, China; Longkun Zhan, Qin Xu from the School of College of Materials & Environmental Engineering at Hangzhou Dianzi University in Zhejiang, China; Tao Pang from the School of College of Science at Huzhou University in Zhejiang, China; Lingwei Zeng from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Hunan University of Science and Technology in Hunan, China.

The research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFB3500503), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52272141), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2024J02014), and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LY22E020008).

About Author

Daxin Chen is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Fujian Normal University. In 2008, he obtained a doctoral degree in condensed matter physics from the Fujian Institute of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2012, he was promoted to researcher with exceptional qualifications. From 2014 to 2018, he was a distinguished professor at Hangzhou Dianzi University. In 2018, he joined Fujian Normal University as a high-level introduced talent. His main research focus is on luminescent materials and their applications. He has been the principal investigator of key research projects, sub-projects, and various national natural science foundation projects. He has published over 200 SCI papers as the first or corresponding author in journals such as Chem. Soc. Rev., Sci. Adv, Adv. Mater, Adv. Funct. Mater, ACS Energy Lett, and JACS. His h-index is 84, and he has been included in the ESI highly cited list more than 30 times. He has also obtained more than 20 invention patents. Currently, he is a member of the Photonic Materials and Devices Professional Committee of the Chinese Academy of Materials, a member of the Special Glass Committee of the Chinese Ceramic Society, and an associate editor (Associate Editor) of the international journal J. Am. Ceram. Soc. and a member of the editorial board of the ceramic journal J. Adv. Ceram. (with an IF of 18.6). He has been selected for the annual and lifetime top 2% global scientists list jointly released by Stanford University and Elsevier for consecutive years from 2020 to 2023.

Xinyue Li graduated from the School of Physics of the University of Science and Technology of China in 2016, obtaining a Doctor of Science degree. Currently, she works at the School of Materials and Environmental Engineering of Hangzhou Dianzi University. Her research focuses on the study of rare-earth luminescent glass-ceramic materials. She has made significant progress in the fields of glass-ceramic preparation and high-power solid-state lighting applications. To date, she has led a National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Project and a Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation Project. As a key participant, she has also been involved in several provincial and ministerial-level projects. She has published over 20 SCI papers in internationally renowned journals such as Laser Photonics Rev., Adv. Opt. Mater., J. Mater. Chem. C, Sensor Actuat. B Chem., and has obtained 5 invention patents.

About Journal of Advanced Ceramics

Journal of Advanced Ceramics (JAC) is an international academic journal that presents the state-of-the-art results of theoretical and experimental studies on the processing, structure, and properties of advanced ceramics and ceramic-based composites. JAC is Fully Open Access, monthly published by Tsinghua University Press, and exclusively available via SciOpen. JAC’s 2024 IF is 16.6, ranking in Top 1 (1/33, Q1) among all journals in “Materials Science, Ceramics” category, and its 2024 CiteScore is 25.9 (5/130) in Scopus database. ResearchGate homepage: https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Journal-of-Advanced-Ceramics-2227-8508