Significant room-temperature phosphorescence enhancement induced by matrix complexes.

• Colorful afterglow films based on chitosan derivatives are prepared. • Matrix complexes can induce significant RTP enhancement. • Regulating energy level of phosphors by matrix environment. • More rigid environment construction by binary matrix system. • Applications in smart package and multiple antibacterial coating films. Incorporating phosphors into polymer matrix is a relatively mature method to develop organic room-temperature phosphorescent (RTP) materials but still needs to be further explored because of limited investigations about the effect of different matrix on the RTP properties of the same guest molecule. Colorful RTP (from blue to red, with τ afterglow up to 1736 ms) in carboxymethyl chitosan (CC) systems was achieved in this work. To improve the RTP performance, quaternary chitosan (QC) was introduced to build a binary matrix system, which extended the lifetime by 200 ms and increased the phosphorescence quantum yield to 3.51 times. Systematic characterizations and theoretical calculations indicated that the RTP materials obtained from binary matrix had higher ion group density and stronger dipole–dipole interactions, which could narrow the singlet–triplet energy gap and promote the triplet excitons generation. Compared to single matrix, binary matrix could also provide more crosslinked networks to better stabilize triplet excitons, thus synergistically enhancing the RTP. Finally, based on the good biocompatibility and antibacterial properties of chitosan and phosphorescent emission, the films were expected to be used for monitoring the integrity of the package and multiple antibacterial coating films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]