The known ferrocenyl-containing silicone materials have redox activity and electrical conductivity at the level of antistatic materials, but they are incapable of self-healing due to their irreversible cross-linking, which significantly reduces their application area. The development of novel self-healing ferrocenyl-containing silicone rubbers (FSRs) is a promising area of research that extends the possibilities of their application as protective coatings. In this work, a new method was developed to synthesize FSRs with different ferrocenyl unit content (25 and 50 mol.%) by anionic copolymerization of cyclic octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), cyclic tetraferrocenyl-substituted 1,3,5,7-tetramethyltetrasiloxane (Fc4D4), and bicyclic cross-linking agent (bis-D4). The optimal concentrations of the cross-linking agent and ferrocenyl-substituted unit content for FSRs are 5 wt.% and 25 mol.%, respectively. The FSRs exhibit tensile strength and elongation at break up to 0.1 MPa and 215%. The FSRs possess both self-healing at room and/or elevated temperatures (100 °C) and redox activity (Fc/Fc+ transformations at E0 = 0.43 V) and conductivity at the antistatic level (ca. 10−10–10−11 S·cm−1). The thermal properties of the FSRs were studied. The proposed approach is relevant for the creation of new functional silicone materials as flexible, self-healing, and antistatic protective coatings.
Photoluminescent lanthanide complexes of Eu3+ and Tb3+ as central atoms and N6,N6’-diisopropyl-[2,2′-bipyridine]-6,6′-dicarboxamide as ligand were synthesized. The structure of these complexes was established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, mass spectrometry, 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance, ultraviolet-visible, infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetry. Bipyridinic ligands provide formation of coordinatively saturated complexes of lanthanide ions and strong photoluminescence (PL). The Eu3+- and Tb3+-complexes exhibit PL emission in the red and green regions observed at a 340 nm excitation. The quantum yield for the complexes was revealed to be 36.5 and 12.6% for Tb3+- and Eu3+-complexes, respectively. These lanthanide compounds could be employed as photoluminescent solid-state compounds and as emitting fillers in polymer (for example, polyethylene glycol) photoluminescent materials.