Near-infrared luminescent PMMA films containing Yb3+-complexes: preparation and characterization

Abstract

Lanthanide luminescent soft materials have attracted broad attention due to their unique optical properties and functional versatility. Particularly, due to their characteristic sharp bands, near-infrared luminescent thin films employing lanthanide ion (Ln3+) complexes as the emitting sources have shown great potential applications in biological imaging, telecommunications, lasers, organic light-emitting diode devices, and solar cells. In this work, by loading Yb3+ complexes into polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) matrix, we report a series of luminescent thin films which can tailor UV and visible light to near-infrared (NIR) range through the energy transfer from organic antenna molecule to Yb3+ ion. Benefiting from the negligible absorption of PMMA in the range of 300 to 2500 nm, our thin films show high transparency, good thermal stability, and extraordinary processability. This strategy can be easily applied to other lanthanide precursors, and the desired tailoring bands can be easily controlled by an appropriate choice of different organic ligands. These properties make them competitive candidates in down-conversion materials.