Abstract
From the perspective of applied science, methods that allow the simple construction of versatile quantum dots (QDs)-loaded gels are highly desirable. In this work, we report the self-healing assembly methods for various fluorescent QDs-loaded gels. Firstly, we employed horizontal frontal polymerization (FP) to fabricate self-healing gels within several minutes using a rapid and energy-saving means of preparation. The as-prepared gels showed pH sensitivity, satisfactory mechanical properties and excellent self-healing properties and the healing efficiency reached 90%. The integration of the QDs with the gels allowed the generation of fluorescent composites, which were successfully applied to an LED device. In addition, by using the self-healing QDs-loaded gels as building blocks, the self-healing assembly method was used to construct complex structures with different fluorescence, which could then be used for sensing and encoding. This work offers a new perspective on constructing various fluorescent assemblies by self-healing assembly, and it might stimulate the future application of self-healing gels in a self-healing assembly fashion.
Highlights
Academic Editor: Wolfgang HeissFluorescent nanomaterials, such as quantum dots (QDs) and carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have attracted enormous attention due to their excellent photoluminescence properties [1,2]
The results indicate that the CQDs-loaded fluorescent
Gel material was rapidly synthesized in a few minutes by frontal polymerization (FP), which showed excellent self-healing properties and a healing efficiency of up to 90%
Summary
Fluorescent nanomaterials, such as quantum dots (QDs) and carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have attracted enormous attention due to their excellent photoluminescence properties [1,2]. CQDs have become one of the most popular fluorescent materials due to their stability, good water dispersibility, low cytotoxicity, better biocompatibility and accessible synthesis methods [3,4] By virtue of these advantages, the integration of QDs with polymer gels has been widely explored [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. Selfhealing gels are able to efficiently fuse separated materials, which endows them with excellent potential in terms of self-assembly, leading to enhanced properties and functions. In this case, self-healing gels serve as ideal building blocks to construct versatile structures and morphologies.
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