Immobilization of lanthanide organic complexes in meso-organized hybrid materials for luminescence applications have attracted immense interest due to the possibility of controlled segregation at the nanoscopic level for novel optical properties. Aimed at enhancing the luminescence intensity and stability of the hybrid materials in aqueous media, we developed polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) stabilized, semiconducting polymer (poly(9-vinylcarbazole), PVK) encapsulated mesoporous silica hybrid particles grafted with Europium(III) complexes. Monosilylated β-diketonate ligands (1-(2-naphthoyl)-3,3,3-trifluoroacetonate, NTA) were first co-condensed in the mesoporous silica particles as pendent groups for bridging and anchoring the lanthanide complexes, resulting in particles with an mean diameter of ∼ 450 nm and a bimodal pore size distribution centered at 3.5 and 5.3 nm. PVK was encapsulated on the resulted particles by a solvent-induced surface precipitation process, in order to seal the mesopores and protect Europium ions from luminescence quenching by producing a hydrophobic environment. The obtained polymer encapsulated MSN-EuLC@PVK-PVP particles exhibit significantly higher intrinsic quantum yield (Φ(Ln) = 39%) and longer lifetime (τ(obs) = 0.51 ms), as compared with those without polymer encapsulation. Most importantly, a high luminescence stability was realized when MSN-EuLC@PVK-PVP particles were dispersed in various aqueous media, showing no noticeable quenching effect. The beneficial features and positive attributes of both mesoporous silica and semiconducting polymers as lanthanide-complex host were merged in a single hybrid carrier, opening up the possibility of using these hybrid luminescent materials under complex aqueous conditions such as biological/physiological environments.
Keywords: Europium complex; hybrid material; mesoporous silica particles; photoluminescence; semiconducting polymer.