Xiao Jinsheng, Deng Junwen, Bai Yunhao, Xie Wendi, Zhong Xuanshu, Duan Hanfeng, Wang Huiliang
Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2025 Aug 4:e202513371. doi: 10.1002/anie.202513371.
The development of non-aromatic hydrogels with unique persistent room-temperature phosphorescent (RTP) through simple preparation methods remains a great challenge. Here, we propose and demonstrate a facile and universal hydrothermal processing strategy for transforming mechanical weak and non-RTP emissive non-aromatic hydrogels into mechanically very strong and persistent RTP hydrogels by metal ion coordination-induced clustering of non-conventional chromophores. As a model system, through hydrothermal processing in a solution of aluminum ions, polyacrylamide hydrogels show dramatically enhanced mechanical properties with tensile strength and elastic modulus up to 12.8 and 75.1 MPa, respectively, and very impressively, they also exhibit excellent RTP properties with long lifetime up to 169.7 ms and very interesting reversible UV-activated RTP emission. The UV-activated and persistent RTP emission enable innovative applications of the hydrogels in self-erasing encryption and ultrasensitive antibiotic sensing. The hydrothermal processing strategy can be applied to preparing other RTP hydrogels by using different polymeric matrices and metal ions. This work establishes a universal paradigm for developing multifunctional RTP hydrogels through metal ion coordination and provides a basis for their practical applications.
通过简单的制备方法开发具有独特持久室温磷光（RTP）的非芳香族水凝胶仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在此，我们提出并展示了一种简便通用的水热加工策略，通过金属离子配位诱导非常规发色团聚集，将机械性能较弱且无RTP发射的非芳香族水凝胶转变为机械性能非常强且具有持久RTP的水凝胶。作为一个模型体系，通过在铝离子溶液中进行水热加工，聚丙烯酰胺水凝胶的机械性能显著增强，拉伸强度和弹性模量分别高达12.8和75.1MPa，而且非常令人印象深刻的是，它们还表现出优异的RTP性能，寿命长达169.7ms，并且具有非常有趣的可逆紫外光激活RTP发射。紫外光激活和持久的RTP发射使水凝胶能够在自擦除加密和超灵敏抗生素传感方面得到创新性应用。通过使用不同的聚合物基质和金属离子，水热加工策略可应用于制备其他RTP水凝胶。这项工作建立了一种通过金属离子配位开发多功能RTP水凝胶的通用范式，并为其实际应用提供了基础。
