Li Qiuping
School of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University of Technology, No. 201, Fenghua Road, Jiangbei District, Ningbo 315211, China.
Polymers (Basel). 2018 Oct 5;10(10):1099. doi: 10.3390/polym10101099.
Ionogels refer to an emerging composite material made from the confinement of ionic liquids within some specific cross-linked network matrices. They have potential applications in areas such as electrochemical and optical-electric materials. Incorporation of lanthanide (Eu, Tb) complexes covalently functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in ionogels provide new ideas to design and synthesize novel luminescent hybrid materials that have excellent characteristics of luminescence and ionic conductivity. Here, the multifunctional ionogels were synthesized by confining an ionic liquid and the rare earth functionalized MWCNTs in the cross-linked polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) networks, resulting in a novel optical/electric multifunctional hybrid material. The SEM images and digital photographs suggest that the lanthanide functionalized MWCNTs are evenly dispersed in the hybrid matrices, thus leading to a certain transparency bulky gel. The resulting ionogels exhibit certain viscosity and flexibility, and display an intense red/green emission under UV-light irradiation. The intrinsic conductibility of the embedded ionic liquids and carbon nanotubes in conjunction with the outstanding photoluminescent properties of lanthanide complexes makes the soft hybrid gels a material with great potential and valuable application in the field of optical-electric materials.
离子凝胶是指一种新兴的复合材料，由离子液体被限制在某些特定的交联网络基质中制成。它们在电化学和光电材料等领域具有潜在应用。将共价功能化的多壁碳纳米管（MWCNTs）与镧系元素（铕、铽）配合物掺入离子凝胶中，为设计和合成具有优异发光和离子传导特性的新型发光杂化材料提供了新思路。在此，通过将离子液体和稀土功能化的多壁碳纳米管限制在交联的聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯（PMMA）网络中合成了多功能离子凝胶，从而得到一种新型的光/电多功能杂化材料。扫描电子显微镜图像和数码照片表明，镧系元素功能化的多壁碳纳米管均匀分散在杂化基质中，从而形成具有一定透明度的块状凝胶。所得离子凝胶表现出一定的粘度和柔韧性，并在紫外光照射下呈现强烈的红色/绿色发射。嵌入的离子液体和碳纳米管的固有导电性以及镧系元素配合物出色的光致发光特性，使得这种柔软的杂化凝胶成为一种在光电材料领域具有巨大潜力和重要应用价值的材料。
