Xylan-based full-color room temperature phosphorescence materials enabled by imine chemistry

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Organic Chemistry
• Sustainable Chemistry

Background:

• Developing efficient room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials with full-color afterglows remains a significant challenge.
• Sustainable and eco-friendly approaches are needed to replace petroleum-based polymers in advanced material applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a sustainable and facile strategy for fabricating full-color RTP materials.
• To utilize xylan, a paper mill by-product, as a matrix for RTP material synthesis.
• To explore the relationship between molecular structure and tunable afterglow colors.

Main Methods:

• Xylan was oxidized with periodate to introduce aldehyde groups, forming dialdehyde xylan (DAX).
• Aromatic amines with varying π-conjugation were reacted with DAX via imine chemistry.
• Dual rigid environments were created through hydrogen and imine covalent bonding.

Main Results:

• The xylan derivatives exhibited satisfactory RTP performances with tunable full-color afterglows (blue to red).
• Increasing the degree of π-conjugation in the chromophore shifted the emission color.
• The fabricated RTP materials demonstrated potential in information encryption and anti-counterfeiting.

Conclusions:

• A universal, facile, and eco-friendly strategy was established for producing full-color RTP materials from biodegradable waste.
• These novel materials are promising alternatives to petroleum polymer-based counterparts.
• The developed RTP materials show significant potential for applications in security and authentication.