The need to identify a thermally stable blue phosphor for plasma display panels (PDPs) is vital, because the currently used
BaMgAl10normalO17:normalEu2+
(BAM) phosphors have serious thermal degradation problems. In this respect, we report on the screening of a
Eu2+
-doped
SrO–normalB2normalO3–normalP2normalO5
system by a combinatorial chemistry technique so that combinatorial libraries could be developed in terms of luminance and color chromaticity. As a quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) model, a continuous luminance map was obtained as a function of composition using an artificial neural network trained using the results from the combinatorial screening. Promising photoluminescence was found in a lineshape composition range in the
SrO–normalB2normalO3–normalP2normalO5
ternary library, and the samples in this composition range were crystallized into a single major phase of
Sr6BnormalP5normalO20:Eu2+
in an
I4false¯c2
symmetry with cell parameters
a=9.784
and
c=19.01
. The luminance of
Sr6BnormalP5normalO20:Eu2+
was 2.8 times as high as BAM under vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) excitation and underwent negligible thermal degradation, even though the CIE color chromaticity was somewhat poor.