Multicolor room temperature phosphorescence in dibenzothiophene derivative-doped elastic binary polymers for...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Chemistry
• Optoelectronics

Background:

• Polymer-based room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials offer advantages like biocompatibility and tailorability.
• However, their inherent rigidity and brittleness limit practical applications.
• Developing flexible and robust RTP materials is crucial for broader use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create polymer-based room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials with enhanced mechanical properties and long-lived multicolor emission.
• To investigate the use of dibenzothiophene derivatives and a binary polymer matrix for RTP applications.
• To explore the potential of a triplet-to-singlet Förster resonance energy transfer (TS-FRET) strategy for red afterglow emission.

Main Methods:

• Doping dibenzothiophene derivatives into a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)/styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) matrix.
• Incorporating Rhodamine B (RhB) into the TPPTS@PVP@SBR system to achieve red afterglow via TS-FRET.
• Characterizing the RTP emission, mechanical properties, and stability of the resulting elastomer films under stretching.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated films with long-lived multicolor RTP emission (blue to yellow-green) and robust mechanical properties.
• Achieved stable red afterglow emission using the TS-FRET strategy.
• Demonstrated stable afterglow emission in RTP elastomers even when stretched significantly or subjected to repeated stretching cycles.

Conclusions:

• A strategy for fabricating long-lived multicolor RTP elastomers with enhanced deformability was successfully illustrated.
• The integration of complementary polymers offers a feasible approach to overcome the rigidity limitations of conventional RTP polymer systems.
• These novel RTP elastomers show significant potential for applications in advanced displays, dynamic information anti-counterfeiting, and encryption.