Noncovalent Biomolecular Glass Platform for Ultralong Room-Temperature Phosphorescence.

Abstract

Developing sustainable luminescent materials that integrate biodegradability, high optical transparency and long-lived room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) remains an important challenge. Here we report a series of amino-acid-derived noncovalent biomolecular glasses (NBGs) as versatile hosts for organic luminophores. The dense noncovalent interaction network within the NBGs matrix confines the embedded luminophores and suppresses nonradiative relaxation, thereby enabling ultralong RTP. The resulting doped glasses exhibit color-tunable afterglow from 430 to 610 nm, high transmittance of up to 93%, phosphorescence lifetimes of up to 4.11 s and photoluminescence quantum yields of up to 74.9%. The doped systems also display phosphor-dependent photophysical behaviors, including excitation-wavelength-dependent emission. In addition, the pronounced viscosity changes during NBGs formation endow the materials with strong, substrate-adaptive adhesion to diverse surfaces. Combining afterglow performance, optical transparency, reprocess ability, recyclability and biodegradability, these NBGs offer a sustainable supramolecular-glass platform for multifunctional organic phosphorescent materials.