Vegetal nanoclusters in hybrid silica films prepared by sol-gel spin coating technique

Hybrid sol-gel films containing Rosemary extract nanoclusters embedded into hybrid silica network have been successfully synthesized using the sol-gel procedure by exploiting the template route, in association with an adequate spin-coating method. Formation of film precursor sols and effect of selected amounts of octyl trimethoxysilane and ethyl oleate succinic anhydride into the starting acid sols on the sol-gel product size have been evaluated by dynamic light scattering technique. The spectral characteristics of hybrid organic–inorganic films have shown that the multiple functional groups from Rosemary extract associated with residual Si–OH groups can cause the increase in the degree of physical interaction. The effect of hybrid sols meaning the silica precursors molar ratio and template concentration on the fluorescence of hybrid films has been also investigated. The fluorescence properties of synthesized films were found to be dependent on template and natural extract concentration. A higher amount of template resulted in doubling the fluorescence intensity in the 400–480 nm domain. The microstructural characteristics of the hybrid films revealed by atomic force microscopy have shown a homogeneous surface morphology with cluster-like structure. Hybrid silica films exhibit a periodic structure with cluster size less than 150 nm.

Graphical abstractFig. 1. The fluorescence properties of RE-hybrid silica films (A) and topography images and height distribution of the RE nanoclusters (B).Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideResearch highlights► Thin coating films containing Rosemary Extract (RE) into hybrid silica network. ► Good quality optical active thin films with fluorescence applications. ► Improvement of fluorescence properties after vegetal extract immobilization. ► Uniform size distribution pattern of RE nanoclusters inside the hybrid film. ► Periodic structure with RE cluster size less than 150 nm.