Fabrication of Translucent and Chemically Durable Crystal-Glass Composite with Multicolor Persistent Luminescence

Long persistent luminescence materials (LPLMs) are promising candidates for various photonic applications, owing to their ability to store light. In spite of advancements in exploring of new LPLMs, the fabrication of transparent centimeter-sized LPLMs with pre-designed shapes, high productivity, long afterglow multicolor luminescence, and high chemical stability, is still challenging. Here, high-throughput manufacture of translucent crystal-glass composites via a classical injection molding (IM) technique is demonstrated, in which persistent phosphors (PPs)-amorphous silica nanoparticles-polymer composites are molded into different shapes then thermally treated at elevated temperatures to obtain glass composites with embedded PP particles and customized shapes. The structural characterizations endorse that the PP particles are preserved during high temperature sintering, and the resultant crystal-glass composites combine the unique benefits of both PPs and silica glass. Remarkably, the total production time to manufacture 100 pieces of centimeter-sized crystal-glass composites is 35 h, thus enabling high-throughput production of glass composite articles by the IM method. In addition, the injection molded crystal-glass composites demonstrate long afterglow multicolor luminescence and ultrahigh chemical durability. This study provides a massive production strategy for the fabrication of translucent and stable multicolor persistent luminescent objects with customized shapes, which can be used in numerous applications. High-throughput fabrication of translucent crystal-glass composites with different shapes, is achieved via an injection molding route. The as-fabricated crystal-glass composites exhibit long afterglow multicolor emissions and ultrahigh chemical durability, making them promising materials for various photonic applications in fields including security encryption, data storage, sensing, etc. image