Department of Biomedical Engineering, Materials Research Institute, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Yizhu Chen
Department of Electrical Engineering, Materials Research Institute,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Tunan Xia
Department of Electrical Engineering, Materials Research Institute,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Mariana Claudino
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Materials Research Institute, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Allison Melendez
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Materials Research Institute, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Xingjie Ni
Department of Electrical Engineering, Materials Research Institute,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Cheng Dong
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Materials Research Institute, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Zhiwen Liu
Department of Electrical Engineering, Materials Research Institute,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Jian Yang
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Materials Research Institute, The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Citric acid, an important metabolite with abundant reactive groups, has been demonstrated as a promising starting material to synthesize diverse photoluminescent materials including small molecules, polymers, and carbon dots. The unique citrate chemistry enables the development of a series of citric acid-based molecules and nanomaterials with intriguing intrinsic band-shifting behavior, where the emission wavelength shifts as the excitation wavelength increases, ideal for chromatic imaging and many other applications. In this review, we discuss the concept of “intrinsic band-shifting photoluminescent materials”, introduce the recent advances in citric acid-based intrinsic band-shifting materials, and discuss their potential applications such as chromatic imaging and multimodal sensing. It is our hope that the insightful and forward-thinking discussion in this review will spur the innovation and applications of the unique band-shifting photoluminescent materials.
