Proton transfer regulated photocured robust room-temperature phosphorescence from naphthalimide
- Aicheng Wang
- Haoxuan Wei
- Kunquan Lin
- Xing Huang
- Mingxing Chen
- Wentao Bian
- Junxiao Wang
- Yuzhou Qiao
- Bing Fang
- Yuxia Zhao
- Jianxiang Yu
- Meizhen Yin
- Yuhua Dai
2026-03-21
Photocured room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials have considerable potential applications but are rarely reported. Here, we reported photocured RTP materials from naphthalimide, which simultaneously acts as RTP chromophore and photo-initiator. Specifically, naphthalimide generates radicals to polymerize acrylic acid and acrylamide upon UV irradiation. The resulting naphthalimide is tightly restricted in in-situ formed crosslinked matrix to achieve robust RTP (τ p = 389.58 ms, φ p = 17.83%, water and organic solvents resistance). Significantly, carboxyl can bind onto lone-pair electrons of tertiary amine in naphthalimide through proton transfer hydrogen-bonds (PTHBs), inhibiting nonradiative decay of S 1 induced by photoinduced electron transfer (PET); increasing spin-orbit coupling (SOC) to promote intersystem crossing (ISC); cooperating with intermolecular hydrogen-bonds afford rigid microenvironment to stabilize triplet excitons. Moreover, afterglow colors are continuously tuned after loading different mass RhB via energy transfer. The as prepared materials are used as RTP inks for fabricating 3D printing and photopatterning for anti-counterfeiting and information encryption applications.