1 Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes, UMR 6226 UR1-CNRS, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France. maria.amela-cortes@univ-rennes1.fr Chrystelle.Neaime@insa-rennes.fr.
2 Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes, UMR 6226 UR1-CNRS, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France. maria.amela-cortes@univ-rennes1.fr Chrystelle.Neaime@insa-rennes.fr and CNRS, UMI 3629, Laboratory for Innovative Key Materials and Structures-LINK, National Institute of Material Science, 1-1 Namiki, 305-0044, Tsukuba, Japan.
3 Lebanese University-Faculty of Science II, Chemistry Department, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Materials (LCPM PR2N), 90656 Fanar, Beirut, Lebanon.
The encapsulation of ZnO nanoparticles (5 nm) coated by cyanobiphenyl units by the sol-gel technique leads to spherical ZnO@SiO2 nanoparticles displaying blue emission under UV excitation.