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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Chem.
Sec. Supramolecular Chemistry
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1441452
This article is part of the Research Topic Catalysis and Sensing for our Environment View all 6 articles

Metal ion-manipulated afterglow on rhodamine 6G derivative-doped room-temperature phosphorescent PVA films

Provisionally accepted
Margarita C. Maida Margarita C. Maida Natsumi Sugawara Natsumi Sugawara Airi Suzuki Airi Suzuki Masato Ito Masato Ito Yuji Kubo Yuji Kubo *
  • Graduate School of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tōkyō, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The long-lived room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) originating from thiophene boronate polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has enabled the creation of metal-ion-responsive RTP films doped with spirolactam ring-containing rhodamine 6G (1). In this study, RTP-active PVA films, namely TDB@PVA and ATB@PVA, were prepared through boronate esterification of thiophene-2,5diboronic acid (TDB) and 5-acetylthiophene-2-boronic acid (ATB) with the diol units of PVA. The delayed emission properties were evaluated, revealing an emission band at 477 nm with a turquoise afterglow for TDB@PVA and at 510 nm with a green afterglow for ATB@PVA after UV light irradiation ceased. The photophysical properties were assessed using TD-DFT and DFT calculations at the B3LYP/cc-pVDZ level. N-(rhodamine-6G)lactam dye with a salicylimine unit (1) was doped into the RTP-based PVA films, producing a multicolored afterglow upon the addition of metal ions. This phenomenon is explained by a triplet-to-singlet Förster-type resonance energy transfer process from the cross-linked thiophene boronate in PVA to the metal-ion-activated colored form of 1. This photophysical feature finds applicability in encryption techniques. Notably, the reversible metalligand coordination of 1 in the PVA system enabled a write/erase information process.

    Keywords: Room-temperature phosphorescence, tunable afterglow, Poly(vinyl alcohol), Boronic acid, reversible metal-ligand coordination

    Received: 31 May 2024; Accepted: 21 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Maida, Sugawara, Suzuki, Ito and Kubo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yuji Kubo, Graduate School of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tōkyō, Japan

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