Searching for biocompatible materials with proper luminescent properties is of fundamental importance, as they can be applied in fluorescent labeling and regenerative medicine. In this study, we obtained new phosphate-vanadate hydroxyapatites (abbr. HVps) co-doped with Sr2+ and Tb3+ ions via the hydrothermal method. We focused on examining the effect of various annealing temperatures (500, 600 and 700 °C) on the spectroscopic properties and morphology of the obtained HVps. To characterize their morphology, XRPD (X-ray powder diffraction), SEM-EDS (scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive spectrometry), FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared) spectroscopy and ICP-OES (inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry) techniques were used. A further study of luminescent properties and cytocompatibility showed that the obtained HVps co-doped with Sr2+ and Tb3+ ions are highly biocompatible and able to enhance the proliferation process and can therefore be potentially used as fluorescent probes or in regenerative medicine.
Keywords: Tb3+ and Sr2+ co-doping; bioimaging; fluorescent probe; hydrothermal method; phosphate–vanadate hydroxyapatite; spectroscopy.