Effects Of Crystallite Grain Size On The Triboluminescent Emmision For EuD4TEA

One of the brightest tested triboluminescent materials is europium dibenzoylmethide triethylammonium (EuD4TEA). In 2011, the authors discovered that synthesizing EuD4TEA using europium nitrate instead of chloride significantly increased the triboluminescence yield. In 2012, the authors discovered that anhydrous ethanol is not the best solvent to be used for synthesizing EuD4TEA. The less expensive acetone increases the triboluminescence and makes the synthesis much easier. However, no study has ever been done on how increasing the crystal size of EuD4TEA changes its triboluminescence. This paper reports the effect of increasing crystal size on the triboluminescence of EuD4TEA. The results indicate that acetone can be used to successfully control the grain size of EuD4TEA and thus increase the amount of triboluminescence emitted. The normalized TL yield is seen to be directly proportional to the square of the average grain size. The fluorescence decay time remains unchanged with an average value of 534.5 ± 7.3 µs, with no change in the emission properties of EuD4TEA.