Stretchable phosphorescent polymers by multiphase engineering
Nan Gan, Xin Zou, Zhao Qian, Anqi Lv, Lan Wang, Huili Ma, Hu‐Jun Qian, Long Gu, Zhongfu An, Wei Huang
Abstract
Stretchable 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.