A potentially multifunctional double-perovskite Sr2ScTaO6:Mn4+, Eu3+ phosphor for optical temperature sensing and indoor plant growth lighting

Recently, Mn4+-doped phosphors have attracted widespread attention in the field of indoor plant growth lighting on account of their strong far-red emitting properties. As a new type of dual-activator sensing system to further enhance the accuracy of temperature measurement, Mn4+ and Eu3+ ion co-doped double perovskite phosphors can simultaneously meet high temperature relative sensitivity and excellent signal discrimination ability for optical temperature sensing. In this work, a series of Sr2ScTaO6 phosphors singly doped with Mn4+, and co-doped with Mn4+/Eu3+ were synthesized. And the Mn4+-doping causes the spectra of the as-prepared phosphors to partially overlap with the absorption spectrum of plant pigments (PR and PFR), which demonstrated that the as-synthetized phosphors can be well used as a potential artificial light source for the field of indoor plant growth. Furthermore, we particularly make a thorough inquiry into the temperature sensing performance of the as-obtained Sr2ScTaO6:Mn4+, Eu3+ phosphors at 300 K–500 K, and the maximum relative sensitivity can reach 3.66% K−1. The above unique characteristics can prove that the as-obtained phosphors have the great potentiality to be used for indoor plant growth lighting and optical temperature sensing.