Electrofluorochromic Hydrogels by Oligothiophene-Based Color-Tunable Fluorescent Dye Doping

Soft electronic materials hold great promise for advancing flexible functional devices. Among the various soft materials available, hydrogels are particularly attractive for soft electronic device development due to their inherent properties, including transparency, shape adaptability through swelling/deswelling, and self-healing capabilities. Transparent hydrogels contribute to the creation of advanced smart devices such as sensors, smart windows, and anticounterfeiting technologies. Poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels are used as a platform for creating electrofluorochromic (EFC) devices in combination with oligothiophene-conjugated benzothiazole derivatives (OCBs) as fluorescent emitters. OCBs demonstrated excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) behavior with a large Stokes shift and emission changes responsive to solvent polarity and pH stimuli. Even in the solid state, OCBs exhibited strong fluorescence emission across a wide range of colors from blue to red, making them exceptionally well-suited for EFC device development. Their quantum yields in the powder state were obtained between 2.3% and 19.9%. Through the incorporation of OCBs into a PVA hydrogel (OCB@PVA), we achieved the successful fabrication of flexible EFC devices, including electronic paper and smart panels. When electric potentials (−2.4 and +2.4 V) were applied in OCB@PVA, fluorescence color changes were observed by an electrochemically induced pH change owing to electrohydrolysis of water. These devices demonstrated the potential of OCB@PVA hydrogels in the realm of flexible electronics. They could be used to create innovative and versatile devices with stimuli-responsive fluorescence properties.