Conductivity, luminescence and vibrational studies of the poly(ethylene glycol) 400 electrolyte based on europium trichloride

Poly(ethylene glycol) 400/(EuCl3)(x) electrolytic complexes with 0 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 0.327 were prepared. The ionic conductivity of these systems was investigated, and the data were satisfactorily well fitted by the empirical Vogel-Tamman-Fulcher equation. Two different conductivity regions depending on the electrolytic complexes compositions were observed. The conformation of the poly(ethylene glycol) 400 (PEG 400) in the complexes was investigated by FT-IR and Raman spectroscopies. These investigations suggest that the PEG 400 chains in PEG 400/(EuCl3)(x) present a TGT conformation (T = trans, G = gauche). Moreover, by laser luminescence spectroscopy it was also proved that each Eu3+ ion is coordinated by four oxygen atoms of PEG in a distorted C-2v site symmetry.