Carbon Nitride Initiated Photopolymerization Into A Luminescent Elastomer Hydrogel

Functionalized elastomer hydrogels with tough and stretchable mechanics are desired soft materials extensively investigated for various field applications from soft electronics to sensors. Herein, we rationally designed a luminescent elastomer hydrogel by combining the functional carbon nitride (CN) unit cross-linkers with hydrophilic polymer chains into three-dimensional (3D) networks. The aqueous exfoliated and dispersed CN initiated the photopolymerization and gelation of an acrylamide (AM) monomer into a polyacrylamide (PAM)-CN elastomer hydrogel (PAM-CN ESH) under Xe light irradiation, without any conventional initiators and cross-linkers. Moreover, the mechanical attributes of toughness, stretchability and shape recovery for the PAM-CN ESH can be modulated by swelling in ethanol and water to form uniform and dense interlinked channels. Besides, the optical transparent PAM-CN ESH presents enhanced stable blue fluorescence emission around 430 nm, and accurately recognizes and detects Al3+ in an aqueous solution with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.26 mu M.