Preparation of PVA Fluorescent Gel and Luminescence of Europium Sensitized by Terbium (III)
Yifan Wei, Zhengquan Fu, Hao Zhao, Ruiqi Liang, Chengyu Wang, Di Wang, Jian Li
Abstract
Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel has a very wide range of applications in agriculture, military, industry, and other fields. As a widely used water-soluble polymer, PVA has good mechanical properties, excellent spinnability, good hydrophilicity, remarkable physical and chemical stability, good film formation, is non-polluting, and exhibits good natural degradation and biocompatibility. It is an ideal gel preparation material. Incorporation of rare-earth elements into PVA polymers can be used to prepare rare-earth luminescent gel materials. Results show that the luminescent efficiency of complexes is mainly related to their structure, ligand substituents, synergists, and the electronic configuration of doped rare-earth ions. Fluorescent gel films were prepared by adding europium, terbium, and europium/terbium co-doped into PVA, and their fluorescence properties were compared and analyzed. It was found that, in addition to the above factors, the sensitization of terbium to europium, and the fluorescence-quenching effect of hydroxyl groups, will influence the fluorescence properties. This has opened a new route for the application of rare-earth materials and may have value in the field of new materials.