Organic-Inorganic nani-Composite of PMMA-Forsterite Doped with $Eu^{+3}$

Drying-step in sol-gel processing was bypassed by exchanging alcoholic solvent in forsterite alcogel directly with MMA. By in-situ polymerization of the MMA, organic-inorganic nano-composite of PMMA-forsterite was prepared. As porous nature of inorganic networks in the gel was preserved and fixated in the composite, spherical morphology of PMMA was resulted. The PMMA-forsterite composite was optically transparent, machinable,mechanically sustainable, and thermally more stable than pristine PMMA. When doped with $Eu^{+3}$, inorganic moiety in the composite provided site environment that is very different from that in pristine PMMA. Prominent $^{5}D_0$ → $^{7}F_0$ transition at 578 nm, broken degeneracy in $^{5}D_0$ → $^{7}F_1$ and $^{5}D_0$ →$^{7}F_2$ transitions suggested that $Eu^{+3}$ was exclusively doped in the inorganic moiety of the composite, which had lower symmetry than the organic counterpart.