A Host Crystal for the Rare-Earth Ion Dopants: Synthesis of Pure and Ln-Doped Urchinlike BiPO4 Structure and Its Photoluminescence

We for the first time report the synthesis of urchinlike BiPO 4 structure composed of nanorods and its photoluminescence properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show urchinlike BiPO 4 structure composed of nanorods. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) pattern indicates that the crystal structure of the nanorod is monoclinic. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) image and Fast-Fourier-transform (FFT) pattern reveal the single-crystalline nature of the nanorod. The formation mechanism was proposed. BiPO 4 displays strong blue emission. Because of the similarities of the crystal structure and lattice constants and the suitable energy level with the rare-earth phosphate, BiPO 4 is a useful host for rare-earth ions. Ln 3+ is successfully doped in BiPO 4 and an efficient energy transfer from Bi 3+ to Ln 3+ takes place, which makes BiPO 4:Ln (Ln = Eu, Tb, Dy) emit strong luminescence in visible region. BiPO 4:Ln will have promising application in high-performance luminescence devices, etc.