Luminescent self-healing materials constructed via coordination between lanthanide ions and phenanthroline-tethered to polymer chain

Self-healing material with additional properties has constituted a great family of functional materials. Herein, self-healing and stretchable luminescent elastomers , Polymer-Phen-Eu 3+ , Polymer-Phen-Tb 3+ and Polymer-Phen-Eu(tta) 3 , were prepared by linking Ln 3+ (Eu 3+ /Tb 3+ ) or tris(2-thenoyltrifluoroacetonato) europium (III) dihydrate complexes (Eu(tta) 3 ·2H 2 O) with the polymer ligand based on PDMS chains and phenanthroline moieties. The dynamic Ln-ligand cross-linking and hydrogen bonds endow the as-prepared materials with fast self-healing capability as well as good mechanical property . Compared to Polymer-Phen-Ln 3+ , Polymer-Phen-Eu(tta) 3 behaved higher elasticity and faster self-healing property due to its smaller steric hindrance owing to the presence of the β-diketone ligand (tta), which feature the polymer with loosely accumulated chains, and better luminescent behavior because of the coordinated water molecules being expelled by the coordination of tta to Eu 3+ ions and energy transfer from tta to Eu 3+ . In addition, the resulting materials, Polymer-Phen-Ln 3+ and Polymer-Phen-Eu(tta) 3 , can also be processed into flexible and self-healing conductors upon the embedding of silver nanowires , which was crucial to their applications in wearable intelligent devices, visualized force and sensing optical coating. Herein, self-healing functionalized materials with luminescence property is constructed by linking lanthanide ions or tris(2-thenoyltrifluoroacetonato) europium (III) dihydrate complexes with the polymer ligand chains. The self-healing ability, mechanical property and luminescent feature of the obtained materials are measured and compared. Due to their excellent performance, the obtained materials is fabricated as a flexible and self-healing conductor. • Luminescent elastomers based on Phenanthroline and Ln 3+ were prepared. • The obtained materials featured elasticity and self-healing properties. • The prepared materials behaved with characteristic spectra of Eu 3+ or Tb 3+ . • A flexible and self-healable conductor was constructed.