Coassembly of a Polyoxometalate and a Zwitterionic Amphiphile into a Luminescent Hydrogel with Excellent Stimuli Responsiveness.

The co-existence of electrostatic attraction and repulsion between zwitterionic amphiphile and anionic polyoxometalate (POM) promotes the formation of aqueous inorganic-organic coassemblies. Injectable, luminescent supramolecular hydrogels have been fabricated by using this novel and versatile technique. Hydrogels with different characteristics can be flexibly manipulated by adjusting the molar ratios of compounds. Interestingly, a linear relationship between the luminescence intensity and temperature accompanying the sol-gel transition was observed. In addition, the emission properties of the hydrogels were sensitive to external acid and base gasses. Such multi-stimuli responsive luminescent hydrogels provide an attractive pathway to construct intelligent optical soft materials, especially for biological sensors for which stimuli responsiveness is necessary.