Summary: | CeF<sub>3</sub> displays favorable scintillation properties, which have been utilized for decades in various solid-state systems. Its emission undergoes multi-component decays, which were interpreted by lattice defects and so-called intrinsic features herein. This study of the complex equilibria in connection with photophysical behavior of the cerium(III)-fluoride system in solution gave us the possibility to reveal the individual contribution of the [Ce<sup>III</sup>F<sub>x</sub>(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>9−x</sub>]<sup>3−x</sup> species to the photoluminescence. Spectrophotometry and spectrofluorometry (also in time-resolved mode) were used, and combined with sophisticated evaluation methods regarding both the complex equilibria and the kinetics of the photoinduced processes. The individual photophysical parameters of the [Ce<sup>III</sup>F<sub>x</sub>(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>9−x</sub>]<sup>3−x</sup> complexes were determined. For the kinetic evaluation, three methods of various simplifications were applied and compared. The results indicated that the rates of some excited-state equilibrium processes were comparable to those of the emission decay steps. Our results also contribute to the explanation of the multi-component emission decays in the CeF<sub>3</sub>-containing scintillators, due to the various coordination environments of Ce<sup>3+</sup>, which can be affected by the excitation leading to the dissociation of the metal-ligand bonds.
|