The study of preparation and luminescence of polymethyl methacrylate/rare earth composite luminescent materials

The alkaline-earth–rare-earth–aluminate systems phosphors are the new types of phosphors, which process very bright, safer, and excellent photoluminescence. Because of hydrolysis, however, the capacity of luminescent materials will fall down and the use value of luminescent materials will also be lost. Water-resistant polymers, which can form a kind of water-resistant clad on the surface of luminescent material powder, will solve this problem and the significance of its application is important. In this study, the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)/rare earth composite luminescent materials were prepared through grafting emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate onto the surface of luminescent materials. To study the structure and properties of the PMMA/rare earth composite luminescent materials, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and photoluminescent properties were measured. From the curves of FTIR and TGA, we can find that the organic parts are attached with the inorganic parts in the PMMA/rare earth composite luminescent materials. The results of luminescent decay curves show that the resistance to water of the PMMA/rare earth composite luminescent materials is much better than that of the unmodified luminescent materials because the organic parts had been grafted on the luminescent materials.