A novel Er3+/Yb3+ doped chiral inorganic nanostructured BiOCl/Zn composite material for enhanced upconversion luminescence and its temperature sensing properties

Upconversion luminescence (UCL) of chiral inorganic nanostructured composite material and their applications have been challenging. This paper reports a successful preparation of Er 3+ /Yb 3+ co-doped chiral inorganic nanostructured BiOCl/Zn composite material (D-BYE-Zn) using a hydrothermal method and subsequent air annealing. The D-BYE-Zn phosphor significantly increased the intensity of UCL compared with the Er 3+ , Yb 3+ co-doped achiral bismuth oxychloride phosphor (A-BYE) and chiral bismuth oxychloride phosphor (D-BYE). Our study suggests that free electron leaps from the Zn fraction onto BiOCl may be responsible for the enhanced UCL. In addition, the temperature sensitive behavior of the D-BYE-Zn phosphor has been evaluated using the thermally coupled levels (TCLs) and non-thermally coupled levels (NTCLs) of Er 3+ and the maximum relative sensitivities (S R ) obtained are 0.95 % K −1 and 1.65 %K −1 (323 K). Our work provides a new strategy for constructing rare-earth doped chiral inorganic nanostructured composite materials to realize UCL enhancement while promising a wide range of applications in light source temperature measurement.