Electrospinning Preparation, Structure, and Properties of Fe₃O₄/Tb(acac)₃phen/Polystyrene Bifunctional Microfibers

Compared to single functional materials, multifunctional materials with magnetism and luminescence are more attractive and promising; Thus, it has become an important subject. In our work, bifunctional Fe₃O₄/Tb(acac)₃phen/polystyrene) microfibers with magnetic and luminescent properties (acac: acetylacetone, phen: 1,10-phenanthroline) were synthesized by simple electrospinning process. The doping of Fe₃O₄ and Tb(acac)₃phen made the fiber diameter larger. The surface of pure polystyrene microfibers and microfibers doped only with Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were chapped similar to bark, whereas the surface of the microfibers was smoother after doping with Tb(acac)₃phen complexes. The luminescent properties of the composite microfibers were systematically studied in contrast to pure Tb(acac)₃phen complexes, including excitation and emission spectra, fluorescence dynamics, and the temperature dependence of intensity. Compared with the pure complexes, the thermal activation energy and thermal stability of composite microfiber was significantly improved, and the luminescence of the unit mass of Tb(acac)₃phen complexes in composite microfibers was stronger than that in pure Tb(acac)₃phen complexes. The magnetic properties of the composite microfibers were also investigated using hysteresis loops, and an interesting experimental phenomenon was found that the saturation magnetization of the composite microfibers gradually increased with the increase in the doping proportion of terbium complexes.