Novel luminescent europium(III) complexes covalently bonded to bis(phosphino)amine oxide functionalized MCM-41

A novel organo-functionalized mesoporous MCM-41 type of hybrid materials MCM–Si–DPBB was synthesized by co-condensation of bidentate Si(OR)₃ substituted N,N-2-diphenyloxyphosphine-4-bromomethyl-benzenamine (Si–DPBB) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) in the presence of the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant as template. Its ternary europium complex covalently bonded to the silica-based network MCM–Si–DPBB–Eu was also prepared by introduction the Eu(DBM)₃(H₂O)₂ into the hybrid materials. The hybrid material MCM–Si–DPBB–Eu has strong luminescence, and when excited by the ligands absorption wavelength (386 nm), it displays the emission of the Eu^{3+ 5}D₀-⁷F_J (J = 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4) transition lines due to the efficient energy transfer from the ligands to Eu³⁺.