Stretchable phosphorescent polymers by multiphase engineering

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47673-y
• Publication Date: 2024-05-15T14:03:14Z
• Authors: Nan Gan; Xin Zou; Zhao Qian; Anqi Lv; Lan Wang; Huili Ma; Hu-Jun Qian; Long Gu; Zhongfu An; Wei Huang
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; Science; Q; Article

AbstractStretchable phosphorescence materials potentially enable applications in diverse advanced fields in wearable electronics. However, achieving room-temperature phosphorescence materials simultaneously featuring long-lived emission and good stretchability is challenging because it is hard to balance the rigidity and flexibility in the same polymer. Here we present a multiphase engineering for obtaining stretchable phosphorescent materials by combining stiffness and softness simultaneously in well-designed block copolymers. Due to the microphase separation, copolymers demonstrate an intrinsic stretchability of 712%, maintaining an ultralong phosphorescence lifetime of up to 981.11 ms. This multiphase engineering is generally applicable to a series of binary and ternary initiator systems with color-tunable phosphorescence in the visible range. Moreover, these copolymers enable multi-level volumetric data encryption and stretchable afterglow display. This work provides a fundamental understanding of the nanostructures and material properties for designing stretchable materials and extends the potential of phosphorescence polymers.