Ternary Rare Earth Inorganic-Organic Hybrids with a Mercapto-Functionalized Si-O Linkage and a Polymer Chain: Coordination Bonding Assembly and Luminescence

A series of ternary organic/inorganic/polymer hybrid materials have been assembled on the basis of the coordination chemistry principle. Mercapto-functionalized MBA-Si from MBA (4-mercaptobenzoic acid) behaves as the first coordination unit, which forms sulfide linkages, resulting in an inorganic Si-O network after hydrolysis and copolycondensation with TEOS (tetraethoxysilane). The organic polymers PVPD [poly(4-vinylpyridine)] and PMMA [poly(methyl methacrylate)] play a role of the second coordination unit, whose organic polymeric C-C chain originates from addition polymerization of the monomers 4-VPD (4-vinylpyridine) and MMA (methyl methacrylate), respectively. These hybrids are characterized in detail to compare with the binary hybrids without an organic polymer unit, whose results reveal that the microstructure, the thermal stability, and especially the photoluminescence properties of the hybrid system are improved with the introduction of the polymer as the coligand.