Fabrication and optical properties of pyrene-Eu hybrid materials

J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2013 Feb;13(2):819-23. doi: 10.1166/jnn.2013.5949.

Abstract

Lanthanide-containing organic-inorganic hybrid materials have drawn much attention in the research of materials with multifunctional and modulated optical properties. Here, large area pyrene-Eu hybrid nanostructures constructed of a large amount of nanowires are successfully fabricated through physical vapor codeposition method at low temperature (77 K). Further optical property characterizations indicate that the pyrene-Eu hybrid nanostructures exhibit enhanced green light emission under blue light excitation compared with other fabricated samples (pyrene nanostructures, Eu nanoparticles, and pyrene/Cu hybrid nanostructures). The results indicate the occurrence of an energy transfer process from the sensitizing pyrene nanostructures to Eu. Pyrene-Eu hybrid nanostructures with unique photoluminescence properties may have promising applications in phosphors, light-emitting device, and UV-vis photo sensor. The results also prove that the physical vapor codeposition method is an effective way for design of organic-inorganic hybrid materials with controllable and tunable optical properties.