Encapsulation of aromatic oxygen palladium phthalocyanine in silica xerogel and its optical limiting property

Abstract Metallophthalocyanines (MPc) exhibit, among many useful properties, the ability to protect sensors against short, intense pulse deleterious to efficient sensor operation. For the successful application of this optical limiting property, an important issue is the incorporation of MPc molecules in a matrix to fabricate a solid state system. We report here the study of different concentrations of aromatic oxygen palladium phthalocyanine (ArOPdPc) encapsulated in silica xerogel obtained by the sol–gel technique. The resulted composites were transparent and homogeneous with the required optical limiting properties. The trapping effect was confirmed by the characteristic absorption bands of ArOPcPd in the UV–Vis spectra. The optical limiting properties of the composites were measured at 532 nm with 8 ns pulses. The results showed that the composites had obviously optical limiting effect, owing to the existing of large amount of monomers and the introduction of palladium atom in the cavity of phthalocyanine ring.