Pivotal role of fluxes in BaTiO3:Eu3+ nano probes for visualization of latent fingerprints on multifaceted substrates and anti-counterfeiting applications

Abstract

In the present work, various fluxes, namely NaCl, NH4F and NaBr assisted solution combustion route was employed to synthesize novel BaTiO3:Eu3+ (5 mol %) nanophosphors. The influence of the fluxes on structural, morphological and photoluminescence properties of the prepared nanophosphors was investigated in detail. The powdered X-ray diffraction results confirm the cubic structure of the products. The morphological studies reveal that the prepared samples were spherical in shape with agglomeration. The photoluminescence investigation exhibits considerable enhancement in the red emission intensity due to incorporation of fluxes. It was found that, the NH4F (3 wt %) was considered to be appropriate flux that reduce the forming temperature, improve the morphology and two - fold enhancement in the photoluminescence intensity. The photometric properties of the samples were estimated and were well matched with commercial BaTiO3: Eu3+ phosphor. The optimized BaTiO3:Eu3+ (5 mol %), NH4F (3 wt %) nanophosphors were used as a labeling agent for visualization of latent fingerprints on various porous, semi porous and non-porous surfaces employed by powder dusting method. The visualized fingerprints display highly sensitive, better contrast and small background hindrance. The aforementioned results showcase that the optimized sample was created a new avenue for the facile visualization of latent fingerprints in advanced forensic sciences, anti-counterfeiting and WLED’s applications.