Rare-earth/inorganic/organic polymeric hybrid materials: molecular assembly, regular microstructure and photoluminescence.

2-Hydroxynicotinic acid (HNA) was grafted by 3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl isocyanate (TEPIC) to achieve the molecular precursor HNA-Si through the hydrogen-transfer nucleophilic addition reaction between the hydroxyl group of HNA and the isocyanate group of TEPIC. Then, a chemically bonded rare-earth/inorganic polymeric hybrid material (A) was constructed using HNA-Si as a bridge molecule that can both coordinate to rare-earth ions (HNA-Si-RE) and form an inorganic Si-O network with tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) after cohydrolysis and copolycondensation processes. Further, three types of novel rare-earth/inorganic/organic polymeric hybrids (B-D) were assembled by the introduction of three different organic polymeric chains into the above system. First, methacrylic acid (MAA) [or methacrylic acid and acrylamide (ALM) in the molar ratio of 1:1] was mixed to polymerize (or copolymerize) with benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as the initiator to form poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) [or poly(methacrylic and acrylamide) (PMAALM)], and then PMAA or PMAALM was added to the precursor HNA-Si before the assembly of HNA-Si-RE, resulting in the hybrid materials HNA-Si-RE-PMAA (B) and HNA-Si-RE-PMAALM (C). Second, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) was added to coordinate to the rare-earth ions by the carbonyl group in the complex HNA-Si-RE, to achieve the hybrid HNA-Si-RE-PVP (D). All of these hybrid materials exhibit homogeneous, regular, and ordered microstructures and morphologies, suggesting the occurrence of self-assembly of the inorganic network and organic chain. Measurements of the photoluminescent properties of these materials show that the ternary rare-earth/inorganic/organic polymeric hybrids present stronger luminescent intensities, longer lifetimes, and higher luminescent quantum efficiencies than the binary rare-earth/inorganic polymeric hybrids, indicating that the introduction of the organic polymer chain is a benefit for the luminescence of the overall hybrid system.