Europium Complex Covalently Grafted on Si(100) Surfaces, Engineered with Covalent Polystyrene Nanostructures

Light-emitting devices are important materialsfor photonic applications, and lanthanide complexes have beenincorporated into polymers to produce luminescent flexiblecomposite materials for large-area optoelectronic devices. Tooptimize the synthetic strategy of core−shell luminescentnanostructures, in the present study, we report on a bottom-upapproach to synthesize a monolayer of the tris-(dibenzoylmethane) mono(5-amino-1,10-phenanthroline)-europium(III) complex covalent-assembled on top of a filmcomposed of polystyrene chains that, in turn, were covalentlygrown perpendicular to the Si(100) surface by an atomtransfer radical-polymerization reaction. The electronic characterization of the final monolayer was performed by X-rayphotoelectron spectroscopy, IR, UV−visible, and luminescence measurements. The surface morphology was imaged by atomicforce microscopy. Emission measurements revealed the luminescent behavior of the Eu monolayer