Luminescent hydrogels with tunable emission colors and excellent adhesion performance fabricated by lanthanide complexes induced crosslinking and physical interaction

Hydrogels with tunable and responsive luminescence have attracted considerable attention because of their excellent biocompatibility and optical properties. However, most of luminescence hydrogels do not exhibit sufficient adhesion, limiting their further application. Herein, we report the construction of a lanthanide-based luminescent hydrogel with excellent adhesion performance via lanthanide complexes induced crosslinking and physical interaction. Especially, the lanthanide complexes not only can be uniformly dispersed in the monomer solution, but also can be acted as both the coordination crosslinking agent and luminophores. Moreover, upon the addition of lanthanide complexes into the polyacrylamide polymer network containing quaternary ammonium group, the adhesive strength as well as the mechanical behavior of the hydrogel are significantly improved. This work develops a simple strategy for the construction of luminescent hydrogels with adhesion performance and pushes forward their potential application in chemical and biomedical fields.