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

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 beta-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.