A review of structures and physical properties of rare earth chalcophosphates

Metal chalcophosphates are chemically and structurally diverse due to the various connective ways of phosphorus-sulfur/selenium anionic groups. Rare earth metals have been widely concerned due to their unique magneto-optical properties and have entered many areas of human life. Combining with the characteristics of chalcophosphates and rare earth elements, the structures and properties of rare earth chalcophosphates have aroused great interest. Since the structure and characterization of the first rare earth thiophosphate Eu2P2S6 was reported in 1987, and the luminescence properties of the REPS4 family were studied in 1998, exploratory studies on rare earth chalcophosphates have increased significantly, and a variety of new quaternary and even pentanary ones have been obtained, with structures ranging from zero-dimensional clusters to three-dimensional networks. So far, there have been many reports on rare earth chalcophosphates, however, there is no systematic overview for this attractive family. In this review, we summarize the recent progresses on rare earth chalcophosphates by focusing on their structures and physical properties. We believe that rare earth chalcophosphates are potential multifunctional materials and hope that this summary can provide some hints for the development of new rare earth chalcophosphates.