A sequential dual-lock strategy for generation of room-temperature phosphorescence of boron doped carbon dots for dynamic anti-counterfeiting

Stimuli-responsive materials with dynamically switched room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) aroused great interest. However, the dynamic control of RTP with a color-tunable persistent afterglow by external stimuli is still challenging. Herein, an appealing strategy for constructing dynamic hydrogen-bond networks based on boron-doped carbon quantum dots (BCQDs) was proposed to generate sequence-dependent stimuli-responsive RTP. The BCQDs exhibited bright RTP in paper matrix after successive stimulation by water and heat, demonstrating a fascinating regulation based on an AND logic gate. The RTP generated experienced a reversible switching without attenuation fatigue when BCQDs were heated and exposed to air. The switching of hydrogen-bond network from that among BCQDs to that between BCQDs and paper could facilitate the population of triplet-state BCQDs. The RTP can last a long timie of 10 s after the ceasation of excitation light source. Furthermore, the AND logic gate stimuli-responsive RTP with different colors in papers were obtainded for the first time after blending with various non-RTP dyes. The BCQDs with controllable and on-demand afterglow were further applied for advanced multi-level information encryption and anti-counterfeiting materials. The finding provided assistance to understand the origin and mechanism of the stimuli-responsive RTP of smart materials and offered opportunities for developing multiple continuous stimuli-responsive intelligent RTP materials.