Facile synthesis and purplish blue luminescence of the binary mixed valence compound Bi4O7 microcrystals

Abstract We presented a facile chemical strategy to synthesize the pure mixed valence compound Bi(III,V) 4 O 7 microcrystals. Our results indicated that Bi 4 O 7 microcrystals could transformed from Bi 2 O 4 with the increase of temperature in the hydrothermal synthesis. The reaction temperature and the pH value of solution play the vital role in the phase transformation. The luminescent behavior of the product was investigated and there exists a broad band emission from 400 to 475 nm in the visible region, which corresponds to the purplish blue light. Therefore, the Bi 4 O 7 can be used as a potential candidate for the purplish blue light emitters.