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Stimulus-responsive room temperature phosphorescent materials based on poly(vinylalcohol) with tunable multicolor afterglow

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Abstract

Polymer-based room temperature phosphorescent (RTP) materials have garnered considerable interest due to their promising applications, such as sensing, fingerprint imaging, information encryption and anti-counterfeiting. Here, we demonstrate a kind of stimulus-responsive RTP materials through facile doping of 4,4′-biphenyldicarboxylic acid (BPA) into poly(vinylalcohol) (PVA) polymer matrix. The resulting polymer film exhibits intriguing sensitivity to both water and heat stimuli, attributed to the disruption of hydrogen bonding interactions within the PVA matrix induced by water. Specifically, a mixture of weakly alkali-treated BPA and PVA solution yields RTP materials with a remarkable phosphorescent lifetime of up to 3 s at room temperature. Additionally, the incorporation of fluorescent dyes enables tunable phosphorescent afterglow colors in the RTP material. By demonstrating its responsiveness to environmental stimuli and exceptional phosphorescent properties, this study advances the understanding and application of polymer-based RTP materials and suggests it as a promising candidate for anti-counterfeiting, fingerprint imaging and information encryption applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 21904055), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian province (Grant 2023J011815 and 2020J05164), and the Office of the President, Minnan Normal University (KJ2023002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Environment, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Modern Analytical Science and Separation Technology, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, 363000, Fujian, China

    Tianlong Yang, Taiqin Li, Yuchen He, Yanling Wu, Mingxin Chen, Yujing Nie & Zhixiong Cai

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  1. Tianlong Yang
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  2. Taiqin Li
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  3. Yuchen He
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  4. Yanling Wu
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  6. Yujing Nie
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  7. Zhixiong Cai
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Contributions

T.Y. involved in investigation, formal analysis, methodology, validation, and writing—original draft. T.L. contributed to formal analysis, methodology, and data curation. Y.H. involved in formal analysis and methodology. Y.W. involved in formal analysis and data curation. M.C. involved in validation and formal analysis. Y.N. involved in validation and writing—review and editing. Z.C. contributed to funding acquisition, supervision, conceptualization, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Zhixiong Cai.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Handling Editor: Pedro Camargo.

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Yang, T., Li, T., He, Y. et al. Stimulus-responsive room temperature phosphorescent materials based on poly(vinylalcohol) with tunable multicolor afterglow. J Mater Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-024-09711-4

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