«It's not only remarkable that we were able to predict a new
phosphor compound, but one that's stable and can actually be synthesized in the lab,» said Zhenbin Wang, a nanoengineering Ph.D. candidate in Ong's research group and co-first author of the study.
One of the hurdles they faced was to safely fabricate the
phosphor using a
compound containing fluoride, which is itself a toxic, corrosive and potentially dangerous chemical to handle.