Nonconventional Full-Color Luminescent Polyurethanes: Luminescence Mechanism at the Molecular Orbital Level

Jiang, Nan; Meng, Ya-Jie; Pu, Xin; Zhu, Chang-Yi; Tan, Shu-Han; Xu, Yan-Hong; Zhu, You-Liang; Xu, Jia-Wei; Bryce, Martin R.

Abstract

The study of structure–activity relationships is a top priority in the development of nontraditional luminescent materials. In this work, nonconjugated polyurethanes (PUs) with full-color emission (red, green, and blue) are easily obtained by control of the diol monomer structure and the polymerization conditions. Selected diol monomers introduced single, double, or triple bond repeating units into the main chain of the PUs, in order to understand how unsaturated bonds and H-bonds affect their luminescence from a molecular orbital viewpoint. Detailed experimental and theoretical results show that the PUs have different temperature-dependent behaviors related to the interplay of H-bonding, through-space n−π interactions, and aggregation properties. The potential applications of PUs in colorful displays, covert information transmission, and multifunctional bioimaging have been verified. This work provides a new general protocol for the simple preparation of multifunctional nonconventional fluorescent polymers and deepens the understanding of their luminescence mechanisms.

Citation

Jiang, N., Meng, Y.-J., Pu, X., Zhu, C.-Y., Tan, S.-H., Xu, Y.-H., Zhu, Y.-L., Xu, J.-W., & Bryce, M. R. (2025). Nonconventional Full-Color Luminescent Polyurethanes: Luminescence Mechanism at the Molecular Orbital Level. Materials Letters, 7(1), 24-31. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmaterialslett.4c02100

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 15, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Nov 21, 2024
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Jan 14, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 14, 2025
• Journal: ACS Materials Letters
• Print ISSN: 0167-577X
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 24-31
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmaterialslett.4c02100
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3332102