ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Investigation of environmental and concentration effects on fluorescence properties of AlQ₃ using mesoporous silica and polyacrylate

Jalal Poostforooshan, Alireza Badiei, Gholamali Farzi, Hassan Goldooz, and Alfred P. Weber

School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

E-mail: abadiei@khayam.ut.ac.ir

Abstract: In this work, for the first time, control over the position of maximum emission peak for fluorophore, using embedded tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (AlQ₃) complexes into different types of host materials, can be achieved. Moreover, the environmental and concentration effects on luminescent properties were studied. In this regard, different concentrations of AlQ₃ were embedded into the poly(methyl methacrylate-co-butyl acrylate) (PMMA-co-PBuA) nanoparticles as organic host materials by emulsion polymerization. It is established that the dilution of AlQ₃ in the polymer matrix leads to blue-shift of the luminescence maximum up to 0.32 eV compared to pure AlQ₃. Moreover, AlQ₃ was embedded in SBA-15 type mesoporous silica as an inorganic host material by physical adsorption. Finally, this functionalized mesoporous silica was incorporated into PMMA-co-PBuA transparent matrix by blending method to obtain Co-Poly-AlQ₃-SBA-15 as organic–inorganic composite material. It was found that there is no significant wavelength shift on the maximum emission peak of the organic–inorganic composite at various concentrations of AlQ₃-SBA-15. The prepared materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), N₂ adsorption–desorption, NMR, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fluorescence spectra.

Keywords: Mesoporous silica; Polymer; Organic–inorganic composite; AlQ₃; Fluorescence

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-017-0183-y

Chemical Papers 71 (10) 1887–1894 (2017)