Synthesis and characterization of phthalic europium(III) fluorescent complex nanorods

The rare earth ion europium(III) was chosen as the central fluorescent ion, and phthalic acid (H2L) was chosen as the ligand. The rod-like phthalic europium(III) fluorescent complex was synthesized using a co-precipitation method in a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) aqueous medium. The chemical composition of the synthesized complex was speculated to be PVP/Eu2L3 x 3H2O by elemental analysis, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The X-ray diffraction analytic (XRD) results indicated that the synthesized complex is a crystalline substance, and the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analytic results showed that the synthesized complex is nanorod with an average size of about 40 nm. The thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) result showed that the nanoscale complex has good stability below 449 degrees C. Photoluminescence spectra (PL) spectra showed that the nanoscale complex emitted characteristic red luminescence of Eu (III) under ultraviolet light.