Europium Complex Covalently Grafted on Si(100) Surfaces, Engineered with Covalent Polystyrene Nanostructures

Light-emitting devices are important materials for photonic applications, and lanthanide complexes have been incorporated into polymers to produce luminescent flexible composite materials for large-area optoelectronic devices. To optimize the synthetic strategy of core-shell luminescent nanostructures, in the present study, we report on a bottom-up approach to synthesize a monolayer of the tris(dibenzoylmethane) mono(5-amino-1,10-phenanthroline)-europium(III) complex covalent-assembled on top of a film composed of polystyrene chains that, in turn, were covalently grown perpendicular to the Si(100) surface by an atom-transfer radical-polymerization reaction. The electronic characterization of the final monolayer was performed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, IR, UV-visible, and luminescence measurements. The surface morphology was imaged by atomic force microscopy. Emission measurements revealed the luminescent behavior of the Eu monolayer.