Effect of sol maturation on the preparation of luminescent ormosils

An UV‐polymerization approach was proposed to construct luminescence organic‐inorganic hybrid. Methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MAPTMS) was chosen as sol–gel precursor to prepare the host matrix and acrylic europium Eu(AA)₃ was used as guest dopants. Structural modifications during irradiation were evident in both the inorganic and organic domains of the hybrid material. The influence of condensation degree of the silicate network on the photopolymerization kinetics of organic moieties was investigated. It appeared that the sol maturation time was of vital importance to the phase homogeneity and optical transparency of materials. To get more efficient copolymerization and higher luminescence intensity of the target ormosils, two key processing factors including incorporation time and entrapping concentration are reported. Incorporation time when acrylic europium was introduced into the matrix during sol maturation is found to be helpful to overcome phase separation. The effect of entrapping concentration of europium(III) compound on the luminescence performance was further studied. Material synthesized by this approach has three advantages: optical transparency with little phase separation, organic and inorganic composite with interpenetrating network, covalent grafting of acrylic europium without luminescent species leakage. This “photopolymerization of molecular grafting” strategy is hopeful to offer a promising development for luminescent ormosil glasses. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45146.