A novel blue-purple Ce3+ doped whitlockite phosphor: Synthesis, crystal structure, and photoluminescence properties

Abstract

At present, the rare earth (RE) ions doped phosphors have attracted more and more attention because of their excellent properties. In this paper, a series of novel blue-purple β-Ca3(PO4)2:Ce3+ phosphors were synthesized by a high temperature solid phase method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectrum, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra were used to investigate the crystal structure, composition and the luminescent properties of the resulting samples. The phosphor shows a strong absorption in the ultraviolet band. Under the excitation of 269 nm, the phosphor emits a strong purple fluorescence ranging from 360 to 520 nm. When Ce3+ doping content is 0.07 mol, the strongest luminescence intensity is reached, and the concentration quenching mechanism is dipole-dipole (d-d) interaction for Ce3+ based on Dexter theory.