Achieving Bright and Long-Lived Aqueous Room-Temperature Phosphorescence of Carbon Nitrogen Dots Through In Situ Host-Guest Binding

Jie Li; Heng Zhou; Shan Jin; Bin Xu; Qian Teng; Chenhao Li; Jinsui Li; Qijun Li; Zhenhua Gao; Chaofeng Zhu; Zifei Wang; Wen Su; Fanglong Yuan

doi:10.1002/adma.202401493

Achieving Bright and Long-Lived Aqueous Room-Temperature Phosphorescence of Carbon Nitrogen Dots Through In Situ Host-Guest Binding

Adv Mater. 2024 Feb 29:e2401493. doi: 10.1002/adma.202401493. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jie Li¹, Heng Zhou¹, Shan Jin¹, Bin Xu¹, Qian Teng², Chenhao Li², Jinsui Li², Qijun Li³, Zhenhua Gao¹, Chaofeng Zhu¹, Zifei Wang¹, Wen Su⁴, Fanglong Yuan²

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan, 250353, China.
² Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Photochemistry of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
³ School of Mechanical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, China.
⁴ CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China.

PMID: 38422537
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202401493

Abstract

The development of bright and long-lived aqueous room-temperature phosphorescent (RTP) materials holds paramount importance in broadening the application scope of RTP material system. However, the conventional RTP materials usually exhibit low efficiency and short lifetime in aqueous solution. Herein, an in situ host-guest strategy is proposed to achieve cyanuric acid (CA)-derived phosphorescent carbon nitrogen dots (CNDs) composite (CNDs@CA) that demonstrates a significant enhancement of both quantum yield (QY) and lifetime mediated by water. Detailed investigations reveal that the robust hydrogen bonding networks between CNDs@CA and water effectively stabilize triplet excitons and suppress nonradiative decays, as well as facilitate efficient energy transfer from CA to CNDs, thereby prolonging the lifetime and enhancing the efficiency of RTP. The phosphorescent QY and lifetime of CNDs@CA can be increased to 26.89% (3.9-fold increase) and 951.25 ms (5.5-fold increase), respectively, with the incorporation of 50 wt% water under ambient conditions. Even in fully aqueous environments (with up to 400 wt% water added), CNDs@CA exhibits persistent water-boosted RTP properties, demonstrating exceptional stability. The robust water-boosted RTP property of CNDs@CA in aqueous solutions presents significant potential for high signal-to-noise ratio afterglow bioimaging as well as advanced information encryption.

Keywords: aqueous solutions; bioimaging; carbon nitrogen dots; encryption; phosphorescence.

Abstract

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