Renewably sourced amino-acid- and lignin-based solid-state emitters

Tse, H-Y, Erythropel, HC, Backhaus, A, Lee, DS ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8288-1838, Cheng, SC, Yeung, CS, Phillips, DL, Zimmerman, JB and Anastas, PT, 2025. Renewably sourced amino-acid- and lignin-based solid-state emitters. Chem: 102781. ISSN 2451-9308

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Chem
Creators:	Tse, H.-Y., Erythropel, H.C., Backhaus, A., Lee, D.S., Cheng, S.C., Yeung, C.S., Phillips, D.L., Zimmerman, J.B. and Anastas, P.T.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	15 October 2025
ISSN:	2451-9308
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.chempr.2025.102781 DOI S2451929425003729 Publisher Item Identifier 2516820 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	04 Nov 2025 17:39
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2025 17:39
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54679

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