Fluorescence emission properties of rhodamine B encapsulated organic-inorganic hybrid mesoporous silica host

•Rhodamine B was encapsulated into hybrid mesoporous silica.•Dye laser with tunable wavelength was explored.

Mesoporous silica material can be viewed as an ideal solid host for constructing desirable dye laser with tunable wavelength range. In this investigation, Rhodamine B molecules were successfully encapsulated into the pore of highly ordered MCM-41 and Phenyl-functionalized MCM-41 mesoporous silica by using a simple and facile postgrafting method. The as-gained Rhodamine B encapsulated mesoporous silica materials were successfully characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption and small angle X-ray diffraction. Particularly, the optical absorption and electrochemical behaviors investigated by UV-vis absorption spectra and electrochemical cyclic voltammogram indicate that the difference on the hydrophillic nature of different mesoporous silica hosts has great influence on the existence state of Rh B molecules, resulting lead to strong fluorescence and obvious blue-shift of the encapsulated Rhodamine B molecules in the proposed organic-inorganic hybrid mesoporous. Furthermore, it was pointed out that the significant host-guest interactions of mesoporous silica and Rhodamine B are related not only to the structure, but also to the environmental and surrounding polarity of the materials.

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