Spectroscopic and Structural Properties of β-Tricalcium Phosphates Ca9RE(PO4)7 (RE = Nd, Gd, Dy)

Rare-earth-based Ca9RE(PO4)(7) (RE = Nd, Gd, Dy) materials were synthesized by solid-state reaction at T = 1200 degrees C. The obtained tricalcium phosphate (TCP) materials are efficient light emitters due to the presence of RE3+ ions, although these ions are present at high concentrations. Moreover, in these host structures, these ions can be used as optical probes to study their local environments. Thus, photoluminescence (PL) emission spectra of the powder samples clearly indicated, for Dy3+ and Gd3+ ions, the presence of the RE3+ ion in low-symmetry sites with some local structural disorder, and the spectra show the presence of vibrational features (in the case of Gd3+). For the Nd3+ phase, emission bands are present around 900, 1050, and 1330 nm, originating from the F-4(3/2) level. In general, these RE-TCP samples are interesting luminescent materials in the visible (Dy), UV (Gd), and NIR (Nd) regions, due to weak concentration quenching even for high concentrations of the emitting ion.

Automated summary

Rare-earth-based Ca9RE(PO4)(7) (RE = Nd, Gd, Dy) materials were synthesized by solid-state reaction at T = 1200 degrees C. The obtained tricalcium phosphate (TCP) materials are efficient light emitters due to the presence of RE3+ ions, and can serve as optical probes to study their local environments. These materials exhibit interesting luminescent properties in visible (Dy), UV (Gd), and NIR (Nd) regions, with weak concentration quenching even at high concentrations of the emitting ion.