Coassembly of Mixed Weakley-Type Polyoxometalates to Novel Nanoflowers with Tunable Fluorescence for the Detection of Toluene

Abstract

In this work, three-dimensional nanoflowers with tunable fluorescent properties constructed with mixed Weakley-type polyoxometalates (POMs, Na₉[LnW₁₀O₃₆]·32H₂O, Ln = Eu, Tb, abbreviated to LnW₁₀) and tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) have been successfully prepared through a facile ionic self-assembly (ISA) method. The shape and petal size of the nanoflower as well as its fluorescent behaviors can be tuned through varying the ratio of EuW₁₀/TbW₁₀. The varied-temperature emission behaviors at 80-260 K show that the fluorescent intensity of both Tb³⁺ and Eu³⁺ decreased with the increase in temperature, which makes them potential luminescent ratiometric thermometers. Moreover, after being mixed with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the as-formed hybrid films showed stable fluorescence along with good transparency. The robustness of the hybrid films was also demonstrated by corrosion resistance upon treatment with strong acid and alkali and thus can be used as a sensor to detect toluene circularly. Our results provide a new avenue to the facile construction of fluorescent composites and demonstrate that the POM complexes can be further used in supramolecular chemistry and nanomaterials.