Full-Color Long-Lived Room Temperature Phosphorescence in Aqueous Environment

Long-lived room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials are widely utilized in the field of biological and chemical sensing, due to their unique characteristics of long-lived luminescence and no background autofluorescence. However, the realization of full-color RTP in aqueous solution still remains a great challenge. Herein, a feasible strategy for achieving high stability and full-color RTP of carbon dots (CDs)-based composite materials in aqueous environment is reported by constructing a rigid hydrogen bonds' network. The obtained m,p-CDs@CA composite materials exhibit deep-blue RTP with phosphorescence quantum yield of 23.2% and lifetime of 1.74 s, and the afterglow can last for over 12 s. More importantly, the m,p-CDs@CA composite materials are desirable in the detection of biomarkers, because of excellent stability, dispersion, and long-lived RTP properties. The m,p-CDs@CA suspension also displays excellent sensitivity, and a limitation of detection as low as 5.61 and 550 nm for biomarkers 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (HIAA) and serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, HT), respectively. Meanwhile, the sensing performance exhibits excellent selectivity even in the presence of other competitive species in blood plasma and urine. With superior selectivity, the long-lived phosphorescence probe based on m,p-CDs@CA suspension can be as an effective biomarker for carcinoid identification, which has potential application in clinical analysis.