Stimulus-responsive room temperature phosphorescence materials with full-color tunability from pure organic amorphous...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Organic Chemistry
• Photophysics

Background:

• Achieving stimulus-responsive ultralong room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) with full-color tunability in organic materials is a significant challenge.
• Existing methods often rely on organic solvents and lack robust responsiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel strategy for creating stimulus-responsive RTP materials with tunable emissions.
• To explore the application of these materials in advanced technologies like information encryption.

Main Methods:

• A water-based synthesis involving covalent linkage of arylboronic acids with varying π-conjugations to a polyvinyl alcohol matrix.
• Characterization of RTP properties, including emission spectra, decay times, and stimulus responsiveness (water, heat).
• Investigation of excitation-dependent color tuning and application testing.

Main Results:

• The synthesized polymer films demonstrated outstanding RTP performance with a long lifetime (2.43 s).
• An excitation-dependent RTP film was created, showing color changes from blue to green to red with increasing excitation wavelength.
• The RTP properties were found to be sensitive to water and heat stimuli due to disruption of system rigidity.

Conclusions:

• A facile, water-based strategy enables the creation of stimulus-responsive, color-tunable ultralong RTP materials.
• These materials exhibit unique excitation-dependent emission and sensitivity to environmental stimuli.
• Successful demonstration of applications in multilevel information encryption and multicolor printing highlights their potential utility.