Electrochemiluminescent Properties Of A Small Organic Molecule Doped Polymer System

Electrochemiluminescence(also called electrogenerated chemiluminescence, ECL),is a light-emitting process involves the generation of excited states at electrode surfaces that then return to ground state. Recently, it attracts so many analysts’ interests because of high sensitivity, low background, wide liner range and good controllability. In this paper, we prepared PFN and PFN-Alq3 organic nano-materials via a facile solvent evaporation procedure. The morphology and spectra were characterized by Scanning electron microscopy(SEM), UV-vis absorption and fluorescent spectroscopy. Then the ECL properties were researched by a cycle voltammetry for the first time. We found that two systems are both ideal ECL materials in which PFN-Alq3 system could be used as ECL sensors of three nitrotoluene compounds. The results are as follows.(1)The as-prepared PFN film was confirmed to be nanoparticles of ~50 nm in diameter. The electronic absorption spectra of nanoparticles presented a hypsochromic-shift absortion peak of 10 nm at 380 nm as compared to that of dilute solution. When the nanoparticles were excitated by a 350 nm laser, it was obvious that emission spectra of PFN nanoparticles exhibited peaks at 425 nm, 450 nm and a shoulder around 480 nm which is coincided with the ECL spectra. ECL property of the nanoparticles was excellent, but the stability of the signal was terrible. Besides, the ECL mechanism was proposed and discussed in detail. The ECL property should be further improved because the ECL was quenched by TPr A.(2)The as-prepared PFN-Alq3 system was mainly confirmed to be mixtures of nanoparticles. The electronic absorption spectra of Alq3 was partly overlapped with the emission spectra of PFN, which sufficed the requirement of resonance energy transfer. ECL property of the system was excellent and stable. The maximum emission peak of ECL spectra via fliters was appeared at 530 nm which was coincided with the spectra of Alq3. And the mechanism of the system was proposed and discussed in depth. The ECL signal was stable for over 7 hours and sensitive to three nitrotoluene compounds. The system could be used as the ECL sensor of three nitrotoluene compounds because of the wide dy-namic concentration response range and low limit of detection.In summary, PFN nanoparticles with ECL properties were prepared in order to develop novel ECL materials. Furthermore, ECL and resonance energy transfer were combined to prepare PFN-Alq3 system for the first time. The stable ECL intensity has been a unique induction of detection of nitroaromatics compounds which may represent a facile and environmentally friendly detection component in opto-electronic functional material, biological and chemical application.