Bio-sourced flexible supramolecular glasses for dynamic and full-color phosphorescence

Abstract Glass, a diverse family of amorphous materials, has significantly advanced human society across various fields. The demand for flexible ultrathin glass, driven by modern optical displays and portable optoelectronics, presents challenges in energy consumption, fabrication complexity, and rec...

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Main Authors: Fei Nie, Dongpeng Yan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024-11-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53963-2
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author Fei Nie
Dongpeng Yan
author_facet Fei Nie
Dongpeng Yan
author_sort Fei Nie
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Glass, a diverse family of amorphous materials, has significantly advanced human society across various fields. The demand for flexible ultrathin glass, driven by modern optical displays and portable optoelectronics, presents challenges in energy consumption, fabrication complexity, and recycling. Here, we demonstrate flexibility and full-color luminescence in large-scale ultrathin glasses derived from readily available natural resources, specifically egg albumen (EA) and gelatin (GEL), via an evaporation-driven self-assembly process. The dynamic crosslinked networks formed through hydrogen bonding between EA and GEL impart both high hardness and flexibility to the glasses, with hardness and flexural strength values comparable to state-of-the-art inorganic and organic glasses. Additionally, the EA–GEL-based glasses exhibit excitation-dependent and time-gated chiral ultralong phosphorescence with color from blue and red, and a lifetime of up to 180.4 ms. With their easy processability and full-color emission, these biogenic glasses can be fabricated into anti-counterfeiting patterns and optical information codes.
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spelling doaj-art-e0a0b6c60c2a475987fedc06f9ce704a2025-08-20T02:18:25ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232024-11-0115111010.1038/s41467-024-53963-2Bio-sourced flexible supramolecular glasses for dynamic and full-color phosphorescenceFei Nie0Dongpeng Yan1Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, Key Laboratory of Radiopharmaceuticals, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal UniversityBeijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, Key Laboratory of Radiopharmaceuticals, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal UniversityAbstract Glass, a diverse family of amorphous materials, has significantly advanced human society across various fields. The demand for flexible ultrathin glass, driven by modern optical displays and portable optoelectronics, presents challenges in energy consumption, fabrication complexity, and recycling. Here, we demonstrate flexibility and full-color luminescence in large-scale ultrathin glasses derived from readily available natural resources, specifically egg albumen (EA) and gelatin (GEL), via an evaporation-driven self-assembly process. The dynamic crosslinked networks formed through hydrogen bonding between EA and GEL impart both high hardness and flexibility to the glasses, with hardness and flexural strength values comparable to state-of-the-art inorganic and organic glasses. Additionally, the EA–GEL-based glasses exhibit excitation-dependent and time-gated chiral ultralong phosphorescence with color from blue and red, and a lifetime of up to 180.4 ms. With their easy processability and full-color emission, these biogenic glasses can be fabricated into anti-counterfeiting patterns and optical information codes.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53963-2
spellingShingle Fei Nie
Dongpeng Yan
Bio-sourced flexible supramolecular glasses for dynamic and full-color phosphorescence
Nature Communications
title Bio-sourced flexible supramolecular glasses for dynamic and full-color phosphorescence
title_full Bio-sourced flexible supramolecular glasses for dynamic and full-color phosphorescence
title_fullStr Bio-sourced flexible supramolecular glasses for dynamic and full-color phosphorescence
title_full_unstemmed Bio-sourced flexible supramolecular glasses for dynamic and full-color phosphorescence
title_short Bio-sourced flexible supramolecular glasses for dynamic and full-color phosphorescence
title_sort bio sourced flexible supramolecular glasses for dynamic and full color phosphorescence
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53963-2
work_keys_str_mv AT feinie biosourcedflexiblesupramolecularglassesfordynamicandfullcolorphosphorescence
AT dongpengyan biosourcedflexiblesupramolecularglassesfordynamicandfullcolorphosphorescence