Abstract
Poly(vinylcarbazole) (PVK) was decorated with surfactant group to achieve amphiphilic polymer with luminescent property. The composition and properties of the polymers were systematically investigated using FTIR, EA, TGA, UV-Vis, and PL characterizations. Different CdTe nanocrystals (NCs) prepared in aqueous medium were directly transferred to organic phase using the PVK-based polymers. The quantum yield of NCs in the composites had been improved by 50% compared with their parent aqueous solution due to the short distance from carbazole moieties to NCs, which facilitated the Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) between them. Moreover, efficient electron transfer at the interface of NCs and polymers had been confirmed which also indicated the application in photovoltaic cell for such composites.
Highlights
Nowadays, a novel kind of luminescent polymers, namely, polymer with amphiphilic groups, has been extensively studied because such kind of polymers possesses several advantages. (1) They can offer particular properties compared with the normal neutral polymers due to their ionic side groups attached to the main chain. (2) Most amphiphilic polymers are typically soluble in water or alcohol, which are environment-friendly solvents. (3) Amphiphilic polymers are important building blocks for nanocrystal assembly via electrostatic interaction [1]
(3) The length of alkyl chains could be changed which allowed us to investigate the effect of alkyl chain length on the PL properties of NCs. (4) The quantum yield of NCs had been improved by 50% due to the shorter distance between carbazole groups and NCs
A series of aqueous solutions of CdTe nanocrystals capped with Mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) or thioglycolic acid (TGA) was prepared according to previous reports [11]
Summary
A novel kind of luminescent polymers, namely, polymer with amphiphilic groups, has been extensively studied because such kind of polymers possesses several advantages. (1) They can offer particular properties compared with the normal neutral polymers due to their ionic side groups attached to the main chain. (2) Most amphiphilic polymers are typically soluble in water or alcohol, which are environment-friendly solvents. (3) Amphiphilic polymers are important building blocks for nanocrystal assembly via electrostatic interaction [1]. A novel kind of luminescent polymers, namely, polymer with amphiphilic groups, has been extensively studied because such kind of polymers possesses several advantages. NCs in aqueous phase were transferred to organic phase using the polymers to achieve NC-polymer multifunctional composites This method provided a chance of incorporating several different color-emitting NCs into a functional polymer. (4) The quantum yield of NCs had been improved by 50% due to the shorter distance between carbazole groups and NCs. The results of interaction between polymers and CdTe NCs indicated that the CdTe NC-PVK-based composites would possess good luminescent or photovoltaic properties just by varying the content of CdTe NCs in the composites
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