Large-scale preparation of polymer-based room-temperature phosphorescence via click chemistry
Polymer-based room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials can be efficiently developed by covalently embedding phosphors into the polymer matrix. The process is still, however, highly challenging on a large-scale due to inefficient binding engineering and time-consuming covalent reactions. In a new report on Science Advances, Rui Tian, and a team of research scientists at the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering in China, proposed a scalable preparation approach for RTP materials. They used the B-O click reaction between boronic acid-modified phosphors and the polyhydroxy polymer matrix. The molecular dynamics simulations showed effective immobilization of phosphors to result in suppressed nonradiative transitions and activated RTP emission. The team completed these B-O click reactions within 20 seconds in ambient environments and the strategy introduced facile click chemistry to simplify the construction of polymer-based RTP polymeric materials. The successful outcomes of this study will allow large-scale production of RTP materials industrially.