A Rapidly Self-Healing Supramolecular Polymer Hydrogel with Photostimulated Room-Temperature Phosphorescence Responsiveness

Development of self-healing and photostimulated luminescent supramolecular polymeric materials is important for artificial soft materials. A supramolecular polymeric hydrogel is reported based on the host-guest recognition between a beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) host polymer (poly-beta-CD) and an alpha-bromonaphthalene (alpha-BrNp) polymer (poly-BrNp) without any additional gelator, which can self-heal within only about one minute under ambient atmosphere without any additive. This supramolecular polymer system can be excited to engender room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) signals based on the fact that the inclusion of beta-CD macrocycle with alpha-BrNp moiety is able to induce RTP emission (CD-RTP). The RTP signal can be adjusted reversibly by competitive complexation of beta-CD with azobenzene moiety under specific irradiation by introducing another azobenzene guest polymer (polyAzo).