Layered Double Hydroxide Nanosheets Boosting Red Long Afterglow via Highly Efficient Energy Transfer

Room-temperature phosphorescent (RTP) based long-afterglow materials have shown broad application prospects in smart sensors, biological imaging, photodynamic therapy, and many others. However, the fabrication of red long-afterglow materials still faces a great challenge due to the competitive relationship between RTP efficiency and lifetime. In this work, we reported a series of layered double hydroxide (LDHs) nanosheets with red long-afterglow (quantum yield up to 42.35% and lifetime up to 256.77 ms) by taking advantage of the highly efficient triplet–triplet energy transfer from green phosphorescent LDHs to the red fluorescent dye rhodamine B (RhB, as a guest molecule). Specifically, the Zn-based LDHs@RhB composite (Zn–Al-LDH-4-CBBA@RhB) presents energy transfer efficiency as high as 95.18%, and the red long-afterglow could even be excited upon white-light irradiation. Benefiting from the time-resolved afterglow, the LDHs@RhB composites exhibit great potential in the fields of anticounterfeiting and information encryption.