Emulsion confinement self-assembly regulated lanthanide coordinating polymeric microparticles for multicolor fluorescent nanofibers

Lanthanide coordinating polymeric microparticles are considered as versatile building blocks for construction of various advanced functional materials and devices, but the research involving the modulation of their fine morphology, luminescence properties and processability is still limited. Herein, we have synthesized an amphiphilic aromatic multi-block copolymer (abbreviated as amPENS) showing intrinsic blue fluorescence emission, which was further employed as a coordination ligand to sensitize the intrinsic fluorescence emission of Tb3+ and Eu3+. Specifically, the three dimensional (3D) emulsion confinement self-assembly of amPENS with lanthanide ions was explored to fabricate sub-micron sized Ln-PENS microparticles, whose fluorescence emission and surface morphology can be readily tuned via the concentration of amPENS and lanthanide ions, as well as stirring speed during emulsion self-assembly. More importantly, we further proved that the Ln-PENS doped polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution can be processed into multi-band emissive fluorescent nanofibers coatings via electrospinning. Basically, the current work reveals a new strategy to design lanthanide coordination polymeric superparticles with tunable morphology and fluorescence, which would open the way for fabrication of advanced lanthanide based materials for various applications such as sensing, anti-counterfeiting, information recording and optoelectric devices.