Polydiacetylene‐Tb3+ Nanosheets of Which Both the Color and the Fluorescence Can Be Reversibly Switched between Two Colors

Abstract

Polydiacetylenes (PDAs), an organic layered compound, show a series of intriguing properties, such as thermochromism and fluorescence emission in the red‐phase. However, their irreversible color change, and weak and single‐color fluorescence emitted only from the red‐phase PDAs, have limited their applications. Herein, we report double‐reversible PDA‐Tb3+ nanosheets of which both the color and the fluorescence can be reversibly switched between two colors. PDA‐Tb3+ nanosheets have the nearly defect‐free intercalated structure in which a layer of Tb3+ ions was intercalated in between each two PDA bilayers to tether almost all of the carboxyl groups at the end of the side chains of the PDA. When the PDA is in the blue phase, the PDA‐Tb3+ nanosheets emit the green fluorescence of Tb3+ ions. When the PDA is in the red phase, the Tb3+ fluorescence disappears while the intrinsic red fluorescence of PDA is effectively enhanced through the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) process; the PDA‐Tb3+ nanosheets emit stronger red fluorescence compared with the PDA in red phase. Moreover, the tethering of almost all of the carboxyl groups at the end of the side chains of the PDA endows the nanosheets with the double reversibility in both the color and fluorescence transitions.