Universal Gd3+-based Hydrogel Matrix for Room-Temperature Phosphorescence Inducing

Abstract

Room-Temperature Phosphorescence (RTP) is difficult to achieve in aqueous media, due to the inherent and serious quenching of the excited triplet state by O2 and H2O. Herein, we reported RTP inducing enabled by a hydrogel matrix assembled from Gd3+ and adenosine monophosphate (AMP). Benefiting from the promoted intersystem crossing (ISC), effective guest confinement, and excellent oxygen shielding, the Gd3+-AMP hydrogel permitted efficient RTP emission from guest molecules. Notably, second-scale afterglow (>1 s) was observed from thioflavin T (ThT)-encapsulated hydrogel, which was rarely reported for ThT previously, confirming the high efficiency of the hydrogel matrix. Moreover, the matrix could efficiently encapsulate diverse guest molecules without size or charge restrictions through an adaptive encapsulation process, thus serving as a universal RTP matrix. Leveraging the stimuli-responsive, shear-thinning, and biocompatible properties of the hydrogel, single- and co-encapsulated RTP systems were further applied in bioimaging, three-dimensional (3D) encoding, and color-tunable white-light emission.