Europium(III) complexes show unique photophysical properties such as narrow emission bands, large Stokes shifts and long luminescence lifetimes and have found application in emissive materials, molecular imaging and sensing.However, the forbidden nature of the f-f transitions requires so-called sensitizers or �antenna ligands� to make these interesting features more widely accessible via energy transfer. These �antenna ligands� can also be used to connect Eu(III) coordination compounds to a polymer backbone which is illustrated herein by different approaches ranging from copolymerization to post-polymerization functionalization.The first part of this contribution discusses Europium-containing monomers and analogous acrylates with terpyridine, imidazophenanthroline and dipyridyl-1,3,5-triazine ligands carrying norbornoyl side chains and theonyl trifluoroacetylacetonate (TTA) as coligand. While the former can be copolymerized by ROMP (ring-opening metathesis polymerization), the latter serve as termination reagents. Thereby, precise placement in random copolymers and amphiphilic block copolymers (within or at the end of the respective polymer chain segments) was achieved. The non-radiative deactivation of Eu(III) luminescence by water can be used for trace water vapour detection and depends on the number of free coordination sites which also was demonstrated for the aforementioned copolymers.Finally, inverse-electron demand Diels Alder (iEDDA) reactions between di(pyridyl)-1,2,4,5-tetrazine and residual double bonds in the polymer backbone to graft di(pyridyl)pyridazines to emulsion-templated poly(dicyclopentadiene) (pDCPD) foams with a high loading (2 mmol/g) and the subsequent preparation of immobilized europium complexes will be presented.

Scope and applications of Europium(III) coordination compounds in polymer and materials science

248th National Meeting (2014)

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