Novel fluorescent terphenyl bridged crystalline silsesquioxane through self-directed assembly

A novel silsesquioxane hybrid crystal was synthesized by a facile synthesis and purification process without any structure-directing agent. fourier transform-infrared spectoscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, C-13, Si-29 solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy were employed to characterize the obtained material. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed the well-ordered features with lamellar spacings in the bridged silsesquioxanes. In addition, the formation of crystalline bridged polysilsesquioxanes with well-organized structure was attributed to self-assembly of the intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the urea groups. Interestingly, the introduction of photoactive terphenyl chromophore into silsesquioxane made bridged polysilsesquioxanes exhibit special fluorescent properties, which could provide a way to fabricate new nanomaterial. We successfully synthesized a novel crystalline hybrid bridged polysilsesquioxanes (BPS) with well-ordered features arising from the self-assembling of the precursors. Interestingly, the introduction of photoactive terphenyl chromophore into silsesquioxane made hybrid material BPS exhibit bright blue emission.