Recently, researchers from the School of Ecology and Nature Conservation and the School of Materials Science and Technology have developed a biological growth self-assembly strategy for environmentally friendly room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials. Their study, “Biological growth self-assembly of mycelia enables eco-friendly full-color room-temperature phosphorescence materials via internalized confinement", has been published online in National Science Review. 

Preparing room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials via biological growth processes presents an attractive yet rarely explored strategy. The researchers report a facile and sustainable biological growth self-assembly strategy for preparing mycelia of Trametes pubescens (MTP) that exhibit RTP.During fungal growth, sulfonic acid chromophores (SACs) with various degrees of π conjugation are readily internalized into mycelial pellets through hydrogen bonding and confinement interactions, thereby suppressing non-radiative decay to enable highly efficient RTP. The afterglow color can be modulated from blue to red by altering the degree of chromophore conjugation. MTP and the chromophores exhibit synergistic growth behavior since SACs serve as nutrients that promote fungal growth. 

The resulting RTP MTP exhibits a minimal environmental footprint, not only degrading safely in nature but further enhancing soil fertility to promote plant growth. This strategy can facilitate the development of highly eco-friendly RTP materials and expand the potential of fungi for functional optical applications. 

Corresponding authors include Professor Si Jing and Professor Cui Baokai from the School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, along with Associate Professor Lü Baozhong from the College of Materials Science and Technology. Doctoral student Li Xin is the first author. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Beijing Nova Program, and the Outstanding Young Team Project of the Central Universities.

Paper link: https://academic.oup.com/nsr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nsr/nwag586/8788024

Written by Si Jing
Translated by Liu Sitong
Edited by Song He
Reviewed by Yu Yangyang