Nature-Inspired Organic-Inorganic Hybridization Enables High-Temperature and Multicolor Organic Phosphorescence

Organic room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) has shown diverse practical applications; however, most organic RTP materials exhibit poor thermal resistance, with afterglow vanishing above ambient temperatures. Inspired by robust afterglow in natural minerals, we introduce a general organic-inorganic hybridization strategy that functionally replaces metallic dopants with organic chromophores. Specifically, carboxylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are molecularly embedded into the hydroxyapatite (HAP) lattice via an in situ co-precipitation method. The resulting artificial minerals exhibit strong and tunable RTP from organic chromophores with quantum yields of up to 31.1% and afterglow exceeding 10 s. By incorporating carboxylated triphenylamine, TPA-3COOH, into HAP, the obtained TPA-3COOH/HAP can even exhibit organic phosphorescence at 500 K. Mechanistic investigations reveal that the HAP lattice not only suppresses triplet nonradiative decay but also promotes the generation of triplet excitons via local electric-field-induced charge-transfer (CT) states and energy traps. This strategy is broadly applicable to various π-conjugated chromophores, enabling multicolor afterglows. Furthermore, solution-processable RTP-active artificial minerals and hydrogels are prepared to demonstrate the potential in UV-responsive sensing and medical treatment. This work provides a powerful platform for "lighting up" tunable organic RTP in artificial minerals.