Facile and effective synthesis strategy for terbium-doped hydroxyapatite toward photoelectric devices and flexible functional fibers

As a material with good biocompatibility, hydroxyapatite (HAP) can have optical properties after doping with various rare earth ions. As a biocompatible fluorescent material, doped HAP could have broad applications in biological probes, drug delivery, optoelectronic materials, fluorescence anti-counterfeiting, and other aspects. In this paper, we put forward the preparation of HAP doped with terbium (III) ions (Tb3+) by hydrothermal co-precipitation. By controlling the Tb3+ doping content in reaction and the reaction time, the changes in HAP’s structure, morphology, and luminescence properties under different conditions were studied. When the doping amount of Tb3+ reached an optimal value, the dipole-quadrupole would occur and the concentration would be quenched. The control experiment showed that the optimal Tb3+ content was 7.5 × 10–5 mol, which showed the best fluorescence performance. HAP, a non-luminous material, was rarely used in the field of fluorescent anti-counterfeiting and photoelectric devices. We proposed to prepare a luminescent aramid/polyphenylene sulfide (ACFs/PPS) fiber paper and a new light-emitting diode (LED) using the Tb-doped HAP phosphor. The composite sample exhibited an excellent stability and fluorescence performance, which also demonstrated a possibility of HAP applications in anti-counterfeiting and photoelectric. The introduction of Tb3+ dopant HAP was done to give HAP optical properties and broaden the application range of HAP.