Water-based fluorescent paint: Presenting a novel approach to study and solve the aggregation caused quench (ACQ) effect in traditional fluorescent materials

Abstract The aggregation caused quench (ACQ) effect in traditional fluorescent molecules can lead to a significant fluorescent intensity decrease of fluorescent-based materials during aggregation or at solid state, which apparently limits their application. To overcome this effect, in this paper, a series of water-based fluorescent paints doped with rhodamine B were synthesized and systematically characterized using photoluminescence (PL) spectrum and other analytical methods Rhodamine B was employed because it can be adsorbed onto the shell of latex by ionic attraction force during emulsion polymerization, and hence its aggregation trends can be inhibited, thus emitting fluorescent light effectively. To explore this phenomenon, a series of characterizations were employed. Firstly, the different emulsion polymerization processes, such as cationic emulsion polymerization and anionic emulsion polymerization of the systems were studied with real-time monitoring according to PL spectrum. Secondly, the factors that affect the luminescence behavior of the fluorescent latexes were studied systematically by varying the different conditions, such as the dispersing forms of rhodamine B, the concentration of rhodamine B and the latex particles, the size, and glass transition temperature of latex particles. Lastly, the relationship between the fluorescence property of the cured fluorescent latex and the testing temperatures were also studied. The research findings herein not only reports a way to inhibit the ACQ effect of traditional fluorescent molecules, but also are predicted to be beneficial to the development of the environment-friendly smart coatings.