2025-10-22 イェール大学
＜関連情報＞
- https://engineering.yale.edu/news-and-events/news/turning-trees-sustainable-photoluminescence
- https://www.cell.com/chem/abstract/S2451-9294(25)00372-9
再生可能なアミノ酸とリグニンをベースとした固体エミッター Renewably sourced amino-acid- and lignin-based solid-state emitters
Ho-Yin Tse ∙ Hanno C. Erythropel ∙ Andreas Backhaus ∙ … ∙ David Lee Phillips ∙ Julie B. Zimmerman ∙ Paul T. Anastas
Chem Published:October 15, 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2025.102781
Graphical abstract
The bigger picture
Photoluminescent materials are essential for modern technologies, such as displays, diagnostics, solar cells, and optoelectronic devices and sensors. However, most photoluminescent materials in use today also rely on toxic metals and non-renewable resources. This work demonstrates the use of renewable and safe materials—lignin and histidine or its methyl ester—to produce photoluminescent solid-state emitters via simple, room-temperature synthesis in water and acetone. Although all tested materials demonstrated fluorescence, one combination—using histidine methyl ester—also exhibited phosphorescent behavior, which is typically facilitated by halogens or heavy metals. These renewably sourced and metal- and halogen-free materials show promising performance and tunable properties through control of the starting-material ratios, proving that advanced photonic technologies can be both high performing and sustainably designed.
Highlights
- Renewable lignin- and amino-acid-based emitters show room-temperature phosphorescence
- Emitters achieve long phosphorescence lifetimes without heavy atoms or toxic metals
- Green synthesis employs renewable feedstocks and mild recrystallization procedures
- Excited-state proton transfer of lignin drives photoluminescence in solid emitters
Summary
The development of sustainable solid-state emitters remains challenging because of the reliance on toxic metals, complex synthetic procedures, and non-renewable starting materials. This study demonstrates the development of solid-state emitters based on lignin, a renewable byproduct of the paper industry, and the amino acid histidine or its methyl ester through simple anti-solvent crystallization under mild conditions. The prepared materials exhibited excited-state proton transfer (ESPT)-induced fluorescence and achieved optimal performance at 0.43–0.62 mol % phenolic hydroxyl content. Notably, the lignin/histidine methyl ester emitter displayed room-temperature afterglow phosphorescence with lifetimes of up to 359 ms without requiring heavy atoms for intersystem crossing. Using powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) data, we postulate that the histidine methyl ester host matrix provides sufficient framework rigidity and H-aggregation to enable efficient intersystem crossing and triplet-excited-state stabilization. This work offers a sustainable strategy for tunable and renewably sourced solid-state photoluminescent materials for a variety of applications.
