Modifying polysulfone into a bidentate Schiff base type macromolecular ligand and study on photoluminescence property of polymer–rare earth complexes of Eu(III) and Tb(III)

Abstract

Chloromethylated polysulfone (CMPSF) was directly transformed into aldehyde (AL) group-functionalized polymer via Kornblum reaction, and then polysulfone was modified to a bidentate Schiff base (BS) type macromolecular ligand, PSF-ASB, via Schiff base reaction with 3-aminopyridine as reagent. Afterward, luminescent binary and ternary polymer-rare earth complexes, PSF-(ASB)₃-Eu (III) and PSF-(ASB)₃-Eu(III)-(Phen)₁ (o-phenanthroline, Phen), were prepared. The macromolecular ligand PSF-ASB and the complexes were fully characterized by FTIR, ¹H-NMR, UV spectroscopy and TGA. The photoluminescence properties and mechanisms of the complexes were investigated in depth. The experimental results show that the macromolecular ligand PSF-ASB itself emits strong fluorescence. However, after coordinating to Eu(III) ion, its fluorescence intensity weakens remarkably, implying that there occurs an intramolecular energy transfer. The complexes of Eu(III) ion exhibit stronger characteristic fluorescence emission of Eu(III) ion, whereas the complex of Tb(III) ion has no photoluminescence property, indicating that the bonded ligand ASB can effectively sensitize the fluorescence emission of Eu(III) ion and suggesting that the triplet state energy of the bonded ligand ASB is well matched with the resonant state level of Eu(III) ion. More importantly, relative to general polymer-rare earth complexes, for these luminescent polymer-rare earth complexes prepared in this study, the backbone of the macromolecular ligand PSF-ASB also takes part in the sensitization towards Eu(III) ion because of that half of aryl rings of a greater π bond conjugate system of ASB comes from PSF skeleton, displaying a great difference with other luminescent polymer-rare earth complexes.