Fabrication of diarylethene-based reversible fluorescent switch encapsulated in silicone material and its photostimulus response mechanism

Abstract

Photoresponsive materials, altering their properties such as color, luminescence, and luminescence lifetime under light as external stimulus, would be ideal candidates for application in fluorescent anti-counterfeiting and information encryption. In this paper, we develop a water-dispersive photo-stimuli response hybrid by encapsulating lanthanide complexes and photochromic molecules with an organosilicon material (OSM) via the reprecipitation-encapsulation method. Interestingly, repeated cycles of UV/Vis light irradiation switch the color and structure of photochromic molecules, which in turn influence the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between photochromic molecules and lanthanide complexes, resulting in reversible luminescence ON/OFF switches, accompanied by reduction and recovery of luminescence lifetime of Eu3+ complexes. Considering the above-mentioned interesting characteristics, we realized the application of Eu(DBM)3·phen/BTHFC@OSM suspension as a light-driven fluorescent ink for fingerprint depth encryption. We expect our findings can expand the application scope of photochromic luminescence materials and provide a powerful approach for information encryption and anti-counterfeiting.