J Sol-Gel Sci Technol (2017) 82:344–351 DOI 10.1007/s10971-017-4341-z ORIGINAL PAPER: CHARACTERIZATION METHODS OF SOL-GEL AND HYBRID MATERIALS Synthesis and comparative study of Ce 3+ ion in calcium aluminates Kailash Anandrao Gedekar 1 ● Sangeeta P. Wankhede 1 ● Sanjiv V. Moharil 2 Received: 28 September 2016 / Accepted: 18 February 2017 / Published online: 9 March 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017 Abstract Phase pure monoclinic CaAl 2 O 4 (CA2), CaAl 4 O 7 (CA4) and hexagonal CaAl 12 O 19 (CA12) doped with 1 mol% Ce 3+ phosphor were prepared by combustion method at 500 °C in a few minutes. Synthesized phosphor has been well characterized by X-ray diffraction. In the present paper, we discussed the comparative luminescence properties of the phosphors with respect to their crystal structures and the various sites of Ca 2+ . This paper provides evidence for different coordinated sites of Ca 2+ ion in the host used. Comparison between calculated and experi- mental value of position of energy in the lower d-band edge for Ce 3+ ion is discussed. Ce 3+ ions were doped in order to study the emission characteristics in the prepared sample with respect to their crystal symmetry. Different emission spectrum is observed despite of their same crystal structure. The photoluminescence emission spectra of the CaAl 2 O 4 : Ce, CaAl 4 O 7 :Ce, and CaAl 12 O 19 :Ce phosphors show strong Ce 3+ emission at around 370, 330, and 320 nm for the excitation at 300, 273, and 264 nm wavelengths respec- tively. The emission characteristics are credited to 5d→4f ( 2 F 5/2 and 2 F 7/2 ) type transitions in Ce 3+ . Graphical Abstract Keywords Ce 3+ ● Combustion synthesis ● Aluminates ● X-ray diffraction ● Photoluminescence ● Crystal structure. 1 Introduction Silicates-based, phosphates-based, arsenates-based phos- phors doped with rare earth ions despite of their wide use do not fully satisfy the demands of modern technology. The drawbacks of these phosphors are poor color exposition, low resistance to excitation and external factors (chemical and thermal resistance), high toxicity, and the complex technology of their synthesis [1–4]. To overcome these drawbacks inorganic phosphors should be oxide-based. The good characteristics of inorganic phosphors are unlimited photostability and low toxic level. Hence they are used in scintillators, lasers, biomedical labels, multicolor displays, * Kailash Anandrao Gedekar kailashgedekar@gmail.com 1 Department of Physics, K.D.K. College of Engineering, Nagpur 440009, India 2 Department of Physics, Nagpur University, Nagpur 440010, India