Luminescence behavior of inorganic and metalorganic europium(III) dopants incorporated into silica and epoxy-diol ORMOSIL sol-gel hosts

The narrow, intense emission bands of europium (III) make its compounds of interest for various optical source applications. Previous studies have indicated that complexes like tris(4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(2-thieny1)-1,3-butanedionato-O,O)europium(III), Eu(ttfa)₃, have superior fluorescence properties in select media with respect to comparable inorganic salts like EuCl₃. It has been shown that such complexes are readily incorporated into solid-state matrices via the sol-gel process. The present research examines the luminescence behavior of Eu(ttfa)₃ and EuCl₃ doped into a sol-gel-derived epoxy-diol ORMOSIL host, and extends our earlier work involving doped silica and acrylate ORMOSIL gel materials. The present study focuses on the effects of dopant-matrix interactions and seeks to compare the emission behavior of Eu(ttfa)₃ and EuCl₃ in silica and epoxy-diol ORMOSIL gel host materials.