Photostimuli-Responsive Terbium Metallopolymers for Dynamic Dual-Level Information Encryption

Despite remarkable progress regarding anticounterfeiting materials that have been developed recently, integrating multifunctionality into these materials remains a significant challenge. Here, we present a family of smart light-controlled fluorescence metallopolymers with self-healing capabilities based on terbium-bipyridine complexes, spiropyran (SP), and a polymer matrix. We achieved light-controlled photoluminescence transformation (including nonluminescent, red, yellow, and blue), and the visual color changes from transparent and colorless to purple by manually controlling the photoisomerization of SP together with exploiting fluorescence resonance energy transfer. Remarkably, the light stimulus response behavior of the materials exhibits significant cyclicity. The well-designed polymer matrix endows the material with processing performance, strong and resilient characteristics (toughness: 42.73 MJ m–3), and fast self-healing ability at room temperature. We have demonstrated the enormous potential of these materials in dual-level information encryption technologies through our research. It is our conviction that the universal approach adopted in this study provides invaluable insights and is paving the way for the construction of multifunctional, light-sensitive, smart metallopolymers.