Multi-component assembly and luminescence tuning of lanthanide hybrids based with both zeolite L/A and SBA-15 through two organically grafted linkers

Abstract

Both zeolite A/L and SBA-15 have been used to assemble novel photofunctional multi-component lanthanide hybrid materials. Microporous zeolites A/L are first functionalized by embedding lanthanide or zinc complexes (TTA = thenoyltrifluoroacetone, TAA = trifluoroacetone, bipy = 2,2′-bipyridyl) into the pores of zeolite A/L, and then the surface of functionalized zeolite A/L is modified via covalent linkers from aromatic carboxylic acids (para-aminobenzoic acid ABA and para-hydroxyl benzoic acid HBA) grafted by 3-(triethoxysilyl)-propyl isocyanate (TEPIC). On the other hand, SBA-15 is modified by grafting covalent linker phen-Si from the modification of 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) with TEPIC. Further, another lanthanide ion is used to link both functionalized zeolites, A/L and SBA-15, through the coordination with the two covalent linkers, ABS-Si (HBA-Si) and phen-Si, respectively. Subsequently, the obtained multicomponent microporous–mesoporous hybrid materials are assembled and characterized using XRD, FT-IR, UV-vis DRS, SEM, TEM and luminescent approaches (spectra, lifetimes and quantum efficiencies). These hybrids with both microporous zeolite and SBA-15 mesoporous host possess favourable luminescent performance and some hybrid systems present the high quantum efficiencies of 90%. Besides, the luminescent color can be tuned by adjusting the composition of these hybrids, among which four hybrids (S-phen-Eu-HBA-[ZA-Tb-bipy], S-phen-Eu-HBA-[ZA-Zn-bipy], S-phen-Eu-ABA-[ZA-Tb-TAA], S-phen-Eu-ABA-[ZL-Tb-bipy]) can be integrated to white light emission.