Fabrication and optical characterization of organic–inorganic hybrid films using ultraviolet-curable silsesquioxanes

Abstract

Novel organic–inorganic hybrid materials consisting of organic emissive materials in SiO2 were fabricated by an ultraviolet (UV) curing method using curable silsesquioxanes (SQs). We evaluated their flatness and optical properties using by atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The fabricated hybrid films revealed significant flatness. In addition, PL emission was observed from the emissive material tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato)aluminum (Alq3), although the FT-IR spectra indicated that some of the Alq3 molecules were destroyed following the UV irradiation. Moreover, their environmental durability was drastically improved because most of the Alq3 molecules in the hybrid films were not exposed to the outside. Thus, the UV-curing method has an advantage of low-cost production because it can exclude the sealing process and needs much shorter time to fabricate organic–inorganic hybrid films than that of the sol–gel methods.