Synthesis, characterization and theoretical analysis on a oxygen-sensing phosphorescent copper(I) complex

In this paper, we report the synthesis, crystal structure. photophysical properties, and electronic nature of a phosphorescent Cu(I) complex of [Cu(Phen-Ph)(PPh3)(2)]BF4, where Phen-Ph and PPh3 stand for 2-phenyl-1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline and triphenylphosphine, respectively. [Cu(Phen-Ph)(PPh3)(2)]BF4 renders a yellow phosphorescence peaking at 553 nm, with a long excited state lifetime of 13.2 mu s under N-2 atmosphere. Density functional calculation reveals that the emission comes from a ltriplet metal-to-ligand-charge-transfer excited state. We electrospun composite nanofibers of [Cu(Phen-Ph)(PPh3)(2)]BF4 and polystyrene (PS), hoping to explore the possibility of using the composite nanofibers as an oxygen sensing material. The finally obtained samples with average diameter of similar to 400 nm exhibit a maximum sensitivity of 6.52 towards molecular oxygen with short response time of 15s due to the large surface-area-to-volume ratio of nanofibrous membranes. No photobleaching is detected in these samples. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.