Carbon dots gels: synergistic platforms for advanced visual information storage

Abstract

Carbon dots (CDs) embedded within gel matrices (CDs gels) have emerged as a novel class of intelligent luminescent materials, leveraging the exceptional stability, low toxicity, and environmental friendliness of CDs, combined with the moldability, flexibility, and multi-stimuli responsiveness of gels. Isolated CDs, while exhibiting stimulus-responsive luminescence (fluorescence, delayed-fluorescence, phosphorescence), suffer from severe fluorescence quenching in aggregated or dry states due to resonance energy transfer (RET) or π-π interactions. CDs gels composites. By embedding CDs into polymer gels, aggregation-induced quenching is suppressed, while mechanical robustness and dynamic responsiveness (e.g., pH/thermal/photo-triggered luminescence-deformation coupling) are enhanced. Leveraging these unique attributes, CDs gels composites demonstrate significant potential as core materials for next-generation intelligent information storage and interaction mediums, enabling dynamic, multidimensional encoding via spatial patterning and temporal luminescence/deformation changes, particularly for high-security anti-counterfeiting and sensing. In this review, we systematically elucidate the underlying synergistic mechanisms of CDs gels composites, introduce their unique properties and application prospects in advanced information technologies, summarize the latest research progress, and discuss key challenges regarding interfacial interactions and cross-scale performance regulation for future development.

Transparent peer review

To support increased transparency, we offer authors the option to publish the peer review history alongside their article.

View this article’s peer review history

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
26 Qas 2025
Accepted
21 Qad 2025
First published
22 Qad 2025

Mater. Horiz., 2025, Accepted Manuscript

Carbon dots gels: synergistic platforms for advanced visual information storage

S. Wu, Y. Zhang, M. Lan and Y. Huang, Mater. Horiz., 2025, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D5MH01219H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements