Photoluminescence Properties of Europium Complexes Encapsulated into MSBA-15

The Eu complexes-Eu (TTA)3phen (TTA: thenoyltrifluoroacetone, phen: 1,10-phenanthroline) were encapsulated, uniformly distributed into the channels of the modified SBA-15 (labeled with MSBA-15), and structurally characterized. The photoluminescence properties of the encapsulated complexes were systematically studied in contrast to the pure complexes. The results indicate that the excitation bands assigned to the π-π* electron transition of the ligands for Eu3+ complexes in encapsulated complexes were split into different components, and the 5D0-7F0 transitions became partly allowed. The emission lines for the 5D0-7F2 transitions became broader and the relative intensity for different crystal field components varied greatly in comparison to the pure complex. Most importantly, the photostability and thermostability of the emissions improved considerably.