Biological growth self-assembly of mycelia enables eco-friendly full-color room-temperature phosphorescence materials via internalized confinement

Abstract Preparing room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials via biological growth processes presents an attractive yet rarely explored strategy. Herein, we report a facile and sustainable biological growth self-assembly strategy for preparing mycelia of Trametes pubescens (MTP) that exhibit RTP. During fungal growth, sulfonic acid chromophores (SACs) with various degrees of π conjugation are readily internalized into mycelial pellets through hydrogen bonding and confinement interactions, thereby suppressing non-radiative decay to enable highly efficient RTP. The afterglow color can be modulated from blue to red by altering the degree of chromophore conjugation. MTP and the chromophores exhibit synergistic growth behavior since SACs serve as nutrients that promote fungal growth. The resulting RTP MTP exhibits a minimal environmental footprint, not only degrading safely in nature but further enhancing soil fertility to promote plant growth. This strategy can facilitate the development of highly eco-friendly RTP materials to expand the potential of fungi for functional optical applications.