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at 104 counts with 11 ms range. The polymer excited 1S and 3T
state energies were obtained from the fluorescence and phosphor-
escence spectra of the GdIII-containing systems at 77 K[37] after de-
convolution of the spectra into their Franck–Condon progression.
Conclusions
We have synthesized two new polycarbonate-based materials
capable of chelating LnIII ions and sensitizing LnIII-centered
emission. Of the two materials, the BEP polymer is a better The LnIII emission efficiencies, Φ, of the polymers were determined
sensitizer with emission efficiencies of 30 and 31 % for EuIII and
using Equation (1).
TbIII emission, respectively. The BEP polymer is also capable of
2
m
mST
nx
Φ = ΦST( x )( 2) (1)
sensitizing blue TmIII-centered emission. The LnIII-centered sen-
sitization ability of the polymers was further explored for white-
color generation; the BEP1Eu1.8Tb28 system displays CIE coordi-
nates (0.31, 0.33) and is thus a good white light emitter.
These two new materials, and most notably the BEP-based
material, have the potential to be used in multicolor displays as
red, green, and blue emitting LnIII-polymers, or in combination
for white light generation.
nST
In Equation (1), m is the slope and n is the refractive index of the
solvent. The subscripts ST and x denote the standard and polymer
samples, respectively. Cs3[Eu(dpa)3] and Cs3[Tb(dpa)3] in 0.1
M buff-
ered Tris/HCl (pH ≈ 7.4) aqueous solutions were used as standards.
The emission efficiency was 0.24 for the EuIII and 0.22 for the TbIII
standard.[42] The samples and standards were excited at 282 nm.
Acknowledgments
Experimental Section
NMR Spectroscopy: H and 13C NMR spectra were recorded using
a Varian NMR instrument operating at 400 or 500 MHz, and the
samples referenced against tetramethylsilane [Si(CH3)4]. All chemi-
cal shifts, δ, are reported in ppm.
The National Science Foundation (NSF-CHE 1363325 to Ana
de Bettencourt-Dias and NSF-CHE 1429768 for acquisition of
the powder diffractometer) is gratefully acknowledged for sup-
porting this work.
1
FTIR Spectroscopy: Infrared spectra were acquired using a Nicolet
6700 FTIR instrument in ATR mode. The spectra were collected in
the 4000–600 cm–1 range at 4 cm–1 resolution and 64 scans per
spectrum. The instrument was corrected for CO2 and H2O before
data acquisition.
Keywords: Lanthanides · Polycarbonates · Luminescence ·
White light · Sensitizers
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Electronic Absorption Spectroscopy: The absorption spectra were
recorded on a Perkin–Elmer Lambda 35 UV/Vis spectrometer in the
range 200–450 nm at a scan speed of 480 nm/min with 0.5 nm slits.
Photoluminescence Spectroscopy: Excitation and emission data
were acquired on a Horiba Jobin Yvon Nanolog (iHR550) spectro-
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