Synthesis of silica protected photoluminescence QDs and their applications for transparent fluorescent films with enhanced photochemical stability

Abstract

In this paper, we have demonstrated a novel and simple way to prepare transparent composite fluorescent films by using poly (acrylic acid) co-polymer as a matrix and silica coated photoluminescence (PL) quantum dots (QDs) as light-emitting materials. The strategies include preparing aqueous amphiphilic oligomer (polymaleic acid n-hexadecanol ester, PMAH) modified QDs, encapsulating the aqueous QDs in silica with a modified Stöber method and fabricating the QD–PMAH–SiO2–polymer composite fluorescent films with a spin-coating method. The obtained light-emitting thin films were transparent under room light and showed bright red, green and deep-blue light under the irradiation of UV light. The PL intensity of the composite films increased incrementally with the number of layers and the concentration of QD–PMAH–SiO2 within each film. A white light emitting film was also fabricated by combining the silica coated red, green and deep-blue QDs in a proper ratio. Moreover, the photochemical stability of the QD–PMAH–SiO2 in composite film was enhanced significantly compared with PMAH coated QDs, because of a thicker and compact passivating silica layer formed on the surfaces of the PL QDs.