High luminescence, organic–inorganic nanocomposite films with covalently linked 8-hydroxyquinoline anchored to ZnS nanoparticles

A series of transparent, highly fluorescent, organic–inorganic nanocomposite films were prepared by incorporating mercaptoethanol-capped ZnS nanoparticles into a copolymer of trialkoxysilane-capped poly(MMA-co-Hq-CH2-HEMA) carrying an 8-hydroxyquinoline (Hq) unit, followed by ligand exchange and sol–gel processing. Electron microscopy revelaed that the ZnS nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed in the organic–inorganic hybrid matrix regardless of the content and matrix composition. The hybrid nanocomposites had good optical transparency in the visible region. The nanocomposites that contained the ZnS nanoparticles were stable and displayed high fluorescence emission at 500 nm, which differed from that of hybrid materials obtained by simply blending the zinc ions or bis(8-hydroxyquinoline) zinc compound with the copolymer matrix. Thermogravimetric analysis indicated that the nanocomposite materials had high thermal stability.