Formaldehyde
(FA) is a widespread indoor air pollutant, and its efficient detection
is a major industrial challenge. The development of a building material
with real-time and visual self-detection of FA gas is highly desirable
for meeting both construction and human health demands. Herein, a
luminescent transparent wood (LTW) as the building material was developed
for dual-channel, real-time, and visual detection of FA gas. It was
fabricated by encapsulating multicolor lignin-derived carbon dots
(CDs) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) into a delignified wood framework.
It exhibited 85% optical transmittance, tunable room-temperature phosphorescence
(RTP), and ratiometric fluorescence (FL) emission. The tunable luminescence
was attributed to different CD graphitization and surface functionalization.
The color-responsive ratiometric FL and delayed RTP detections of
FA were displayed over the range of 20–1500 μM (R
2 = 0.966, LOD = 1.08 nM) and 20–2000
μM (R
2 = 0.977, LOD = 45.8 nM),
respectively. The LTW was also used as an encapsulation film on a
UV-emitting InGaN chip to form white light-emitting diodes, indicating
the feasibility as an FA-responsive planar light source. The operational
notion of functional LTW can expand its applications to new fields
such as a stimuli-responsive light-transmitting window or planar light
sources while monitoring indoor air pollutants, temperature, and humidity.
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