Room-Temperature Afterglow Nanostructures via Block Copolymer Self-Assembly

Miniaturization of organic afterglow materials has shown promising application in biomedical and other areas. Current technologies, such as nanoprecipitation, mechanical treatment, and emulsion polymerization, lack the capability of facile control on the morphology and dimension of the miniaturized organic afterglow materials. Here we report the fabrication of organic afterglow nanostructures via block copolymer self-assembly at room temperature. The fabrication is based on two-component design strategy where hydrophobic luminescent emitters with small rate constants of phosphorescence decay or reverse intersystem crossing are designed as the first component. Amphiphilic block copolymers that can form spherical core-shell micelles and worm-like micelles with glassy hydrophobic cores are used as the second component. Upon addition of water into a dimethylformamide solution that contains the two components, the amphiphilic block copolymers self-assemble into well-defined nanostructures and accommodate the hydrophobic luminescent emitters in nanostructure's hydrophobic cores. After switching to pure water by dialysis, room-temperature afterglow nanostructures have been obtained because of the excellent protection of organic triplets by the glassy hydrophobic cores. The afterglow nanostructures exhibit intriguing afterglow mechanism modulated by the types of luminescent emitters, controlled dimensions and morphologies by the structural parameters of the block copolymers.