Achieving Multicolor Long-Lived Luminescence in Dye-Encapsulated Metal–Organic Frameworks and Its Application to Anticounterfeiting Stamps

Abstract

Long-lived luminescent metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted much attention due to their structural tunability and potential applications in sensing, biological imaging, security systems, and logical gates. Currently, the long-lived luminescence emission of such inorganic–organic hybrids is dominantly confined to short-wavelength regions. The long-wavelength long-lived luminescence emission, however, has been rarely reported for MOFs. In this work, a series of structurally stable long-wavelength long-lived luminescent MOFs have been successfully synthesized by encapsulating different dyes into the green phosphorescent MOFs Cd(m-BDC)(BIM). The multicolor long-wavelength long-lived luminescence emissions (ranging from green to red) in dye-encapsulated MOFs are achieved by the MOF-to-dye phosphorescence energy transfer. Furthermore, the promising optical properties of these novel long-lived luminescent MOFs allow them to be used as ink pads for advanced anticounterfeiting stamps. Therefore, this work not only offers a facile way to develop new types of multicolor long-lived luminescent materials but also provides a reference for the development of advanced long-lived luminescent anticounterfeiting materials.