Fabrication and characterization of a complex lighting system formed by a luminescent polymeric rod

Abstract

Illumination is one of the most important elements of any room or workspace; it is defined as the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. The latter, has inspired the design of complex lighting systems such as fibre optic Christmas trees or photoluminescent optical fibres with lateral emission in which the light color is a combination of the light source and the photoluminescence of the active material. Since the intended use of most of these complex lighting systems are mainly decorative, there is a lack of information regarding its performance or manufacturing process. The complex lighting systems proposed is formed by a poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) rod covered by a polymer thin film that contains luminescent nanoparticles. A spray process was used to deposit the thin film with different luminescent particles concentration. The structure, morphology and optical properties of the samples were measured by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, UV-VIS and photoluminescence spectroscopy, respectively. Results showed that polymer based composite luminescent material could be a good candidate for the development of complex lighting systems.