Hydrothermal Processing as an Effective Strategy for Producing Coordinated Non-Aromatic Hydrogels With Persistent and...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Chemistry
• Supramolecular Chemistry

Background:

• Developing non-aromatic hydrogels with persistent room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) via simple methods is challenging.
• Existing hydrogels often lack mechanical strength and RTP properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a facile and universal hydrothermal processing strategy for creating strong, RTP-emissive non-aromatic hydrogels.
• To demonstrate the transformation of weak, non-RTP hydrogels into mechanically robust, persistent RTP hydrogels.

Main Methods:

• Utilized hydrothermal processing with metal ion coordination (e.g., aluminum ions) to induce chromophore clustering.
• Investigated polyacrylamide hydrogels as a model system.
• Characterized mechanical properties (tensile strength, elastic modulus) and RTP characteristics (lifetime, emission reversibility).

Main Results:

• Polyacrylamide hydrogels exhibited significantly enhanced mechanical properties (tensile strength up to 12.8 MPa, elastic modulus up to 75.1 MPa).
• Achieved excellent persistent RTP properties with a long lifetime (up to 169.7 ms) and reversible UV-activated emission.
• Demonstrated potential applications in self-erasing encryption and ultrasensitive antibiotic sensing.

Conclusions:

• The hydrothermal strategy provides a universal method for developing mechanically strong, multifunctional RTP hydrogels.
• Metal ion coordination is key to inducing clustering and achieving desired hydrogel properties.
• This approach offers a foundation for practical applications of advanced RTP hydrogels.