Luminescence properties and color identification of Eu doped Ca3(PO4)2 phosphors calcined in air

The Ca3(PO4)2：Eu (TCP) phosphor was synthesized by a high-temperature solid-state reaction in air atmosphere. X-ray powder diffraction(XRD) analysis indicates that the α-TCP↔β-TCP phase transition takes place under different calcination and cooling conditions. The luminescence properties of the two different phases of TCP were discussed according to the luminescence spectra during the heating and cooling transition. The CIE chromaticity coordinates of β-TCP phase located at the red region, α-TCP phase at bluish-green region because of the coexistence of Eu2+ and Eu3+ ions. The color-tunable emission of the products could also be directly observed under UV lamp. Pure red and bluish-green-emitting particles were observed respectively for the pure β-TCP phase and α-TCP phase samples whereas bluish-green and red mixture emitting particles were traced for the α-TCP /β-TCP phase co-existence samples. Therefore, results of this study suggested that Eu ion could be used as a spectroscopic probe to qualitatively identify the crystalline phase of TCP by a simple and convenient way to observe the color-tunable emission of the samples when irradiating it under 365 nm UV lamp.