Facile room-temperature coprecipitation of uniform barium chlorapatite nanoassemblies as a host photoluminescent material

As an emerging host phosphor material, barium chlorapatite (Ba-5(PO4)(3)Cl), is attracting growing attention. However, rare earth-doped Ba-5(PO4)(3)Cl phosphors have mainly been obtained via high temperature-based, energy-consuming techniques. In this contribution, we developed a straightforward, facile room-temperature coprecipitation method in the presence of a specific amount of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt that provided Ba-5(PO4)(3)Cl nanoparticles self-assembled to construct uniform Ba-5(PO4)(3)Cl nanoassemblies (diameter: 80-120 nm) as well as rare earth Tb3+-doped Ba-5(PO4)(3)Cl:xTb(3+) nanophosphors. The nanoassemblies were transparent within the ultraviolet and visible spectral range. The Ba-5(PO4)(3)Cl:xTb(3+) nanophosphors exhibited four emission peaks under 228-nm excitation, and the optimal doping amount of Tb3+ was 4.0%. In contrast to traditional energy-consuming, high-temperature techniques, the facile room-temperature coprecipitation method developed here represents an attractive alternative route to obtain uniform Ba-5(PO4)(3)Cl nanoassemblies and Ba-5(PO4)(3)Cl:xTb(3+) nanophosphors that are candidate luminescent hosts. (C) 2017 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.