Interfacial Response of a Fluorescent Dye Grafted to Glass

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The properties of an epoxy/glass interfacial region are studied by covalently grafting a fluorescent probe to the glass surface. A dimethylaminonitrostilbene fluorophore is tethered to a triethoxysilane-coupling agent, generating a fluorescently labeled silane coupling agent (FLSCA). The glass surface is coated with a silane layer that was doped with small amounts of FLSCA. When the FLSCA-doped, silane-coated glass is immersed in epoxy resin, a 42-nm blue shift in fluorescence occurs during resin cure over the grafted FLSCA layer. When the dye is dissolved in bulk epoxy a 64-nm blue shift occurs during resin cure. The difference in blue shift is attributed to higher polarity and enhanced mobility in the buried interface.