Long lifetimes white afterglow in slightly crosslinked polymer systems

Area of Science:

• Polymer Science
• Materials Chemistry
• Optoelectronics

Background:

• Intrinsic polymer room-temperature phosphorescence (IPRTP) materials are valuable for flexible electronics, information encryption, and lighting due to their processability and luminescence.
• Achieving multicolor and white afterglow in undoped polymers remains a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a strategy for creating intrinsic polymers with tunable, long-lived room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and multicolor/white afterglow.
• To explore the potential applications of these novel phosphorescent polymers.

Main Methods:

• A one-pot reaction was employed to covalently couple various conjugated chromophores with poly(acrylic acid-AA-N-succinimide ester) (PAA-NHS).
• The resulting polymers were characterized for their phosphorescence properties, including quantum yield and emission color.

Main Results:

• Pure polymers with long-lived RTPs in various colors were successfully synthesized.
• Phosphorescence quantum yield reached up to 14.7% in PAPHE.
• Afterglow color was tunable from blue to red by incorporating different chromophores.
• A specific polymer, TPAP-514, exhibited white afterglow (chromaticity coordinates: 0.33, 0.33) via a three-primary-color mechanism.
• Emission was confirmed to originate from the superposition of different triplet excited states.

Conclusions:

• The proposed strategy enables the construction of intrinsic polymers with diverse white-light emission RTPs.
• The synthesized polymers show promise for applications in light-emitting diodes and dynamic anti-counterfeiting technologies.