Harnessing spiropyran isomerization in lanthanide metallopolymers for sequential logic encryption and...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Stimuli-responsive lanthanide-based luminescent materials offer dynamic photoluminescence changes and reversible property recovery.
• These materials are promising for optical encryption and anticounterfeiting but achieving simultaneous light, pH, and temperature responsiveness with tunable multicolor emission is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop terbium-based metallopolymers with triple-mode reversible responsiveness (light, pH, temperature) and tunable emission.
• To explore their potential in advanced optical applications like encryption and anticounterfeiting.

Main Methods:

• Synthesized two terbium-based metallopolymers (Poly-Tb(1-2)) by copolymerizing spiropyran and terpyridine into a polymethyl methacrylate backbone.
• Coordinated the polymer with β-diketone Tb(iii) complexes to achieve effective energy transfer.

Main Results:

• Poly-Tb(1-2) demonstrated effective photochromic behavior and pH-dependent emission color switching.
• Poly-Tb(1) exhibited reversible responsiveness to light and pH, with enhanced terbium luminescence upon heating in its merocyanine state.
• Materials showed precise multicolor modulation and adaptability to external stimuli.

Conclusions:

• Developed a facile strategy for constructing multifunctional lanthanide metallopolymers with multi-stimuli responsiveness.
• Demonstrated the potential of these materials in erasable photopatterning and sequential logic information encryption systems.
• These findings contribute to the development of next-generation intelligent multifunctional materials.