Preparation of hybrid mesoporous silica luminescent nanoparticles with lanthanide(iii) complexes and their exhibition of white emission

摘要

We chose dipicolinic acid as a tridentate chelating unit featuring ONO donors to react with lanthanide(iii) ions to yield tight and protective N _3O_6 environments around the lanthanide(iii) ions. We immobilized the lanthanide(iii)-dipicolinic acid complexes on colloidal mesoporous silica with diameter smaller than 100 nm by a covalent bond grafting technique and obtained nearly monodisperse luminescent Eu-dpa-Si and Tb-dpa-Si functionalized hybrid mesoporous silica nanomaterials. These hybrid nanomaterials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and photoluminescence spectroscopic techniques. The hybrid mesoporous silica nanoparticles exhibit intense emission lines upon UV-light irradiation, owing to the effective intramolecular energy transfer from the chromophore to the central lanthanide Eu~(3+) and Tb~(3+) ions. Furthermore, the functionalized nanomaterials can be turned to white light materials after annealing at high temperature.