Humidity-resistant organic room-temperature phosphorescence materials synthesized using catalyst-free click reaction

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2023-04, Vol.462, p.142198, Article 142198
• Main Authors: Yang, Xipeng, Dong, Yongjie, Ma, Song, Ren, Jiayuan, Li, Ningyan, Lü, Shaoyu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Click reaction; Humidity-resistant; Organic room-temperature phosphorescence; Underwater anticounterfeiting
• ISSN: 1385-8947; 1873-3212
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2023.142198

•Humidity-resistant ORTP materials are achieved.•A universal catalyst-free B-O click chemistry strategy is developed.•Intense phosphorescence emission is observed at 120 ℃ or in water for 2 h.•3D ORTP models are fabricated. Organic room-temperature phosphorescence (ORTP) materials have been extensively explored in diverse applications, and are typically synthesized using carefully chosen polymers or under rigorous reaction conditions. Here we report a universal catalyst-free B-O click chemistry strategy to synthesize ORTP materials and thus avoid most of the disadvantages of traditional methods. Using this strategy, we synthesize to our knowledge previously unreported humidity-resistant ORTP materials via the click reaction of gallic acid and copolymers of 3-acrylamidephenylboronic acid and hydrophilic monomers. Intense phosphorescence emission is observed when placing the ORTP materials at 120 oC or immersing in water for 2 h. Finally, 3D ORTP models are fabricated, which is useful for the design of flexible ORTP devices. The facility and generality of this catalyst-free B-O click chemistry strategy together with improved humidity resistance holds substantial promise of these ORTP materials in applications including anticounterfeiting and displays in harsh environments.