Constructing Carbonized Polymer Dot-Based Color-Tunable Long-Lived Circularly Polarized Afterglow via Supramolecular Phosphorescence Resonance Energy Transfer

Carbonized polymer dots (CPDs) with circularly polarized afterglow (CPA) materials featuring a long lifetime have become a research hot spot and exhibit promising applications in various fields. However, constructing intrinsic CPD-based CPA materials with tunable afterglow color without chiral templates or protective matrices is still challenging. In this work, negatively charged CPDs with intrinsic CPA were prepared using poly(acrylic acid) and l/d-cysteine as precursors. The color-tunable CPA is successfully constructed by engineering supramolecular phosphorescence resonance energy transfer (PRET) between negatively charged CPDs and positively charged/zwitterionic fluorescent dyes via electrostatic interaction. This work provides a universal way to develop intrinsic CPD-based CPA materials with tunable afterglow color without chiral templates or protective matrices.