Producing long afterglow by cellulose confinement effect: A wood-inspired design for sustainable phosphorescent materials

Embedding luminogens into a well-selected rigid matrix has been a particularly attractive way of preparing long afterglow materials. On this basis, seeking green, low-cost and sustainable materials or strategies, remains challenging but desirable. Prompted by the generation of wood fluorescence, a general strategy for preparing long afterglow materials successfully developed by embedding biomass-derived carbon dots into cellulose fibrils. Internal hydrogen bonding interactions between cellulose fibrils and carbon dots strongly erected a confinement effect for protecting the triplet exciton from quenching, leading to an increase of phosphorescence lifetime by seven orders of magnitude. These properties, which originated from such a green and convenient approach, were able to match most of reported long afterglow examples. Moreover, thanks to the humidity sensitivity of cellulose, the materials can behave a unique humidity-dependent phosphorescence property, showing superior potential application in advanced anti-counterfeiting and encryption. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Embedding biomass-derived carbon dots into cellulose fibrils has successfully prepared long afterglow materials, with internal hydrogen bonding interactions enhancing protection for triplet excitons and significantly increasing phosphorescence lifetime. The green and convenient approach has shown great potential applications, especially in advanced anti-counterfeiting and encryption.