Fig. 5: Afterglow properties of the p-CDs.

a Schematic illustration of the preparation of the p-CDs. b Transmission electron microscopy (TEM, left, scale bars: 2 μm), high‐resolution TEM (HR-TEM, upper right (scale bars: 50 nm) and lower right (scale bars: 5 nm)) images of the p-CDs. c Dynamic light scattering (DLS) distribution of the p-CDs in aqueous solution. d The afterglow photograph and the corresponding afterglow intensity of p-CDs with the concentration from 0 to 1 mg mL⁻¹ (660 nm, 1.5 W cm⁻², 2 min). e The afterglow photograph and the corresponding afterglow intensity of p-CDs with the time of light irradiation from 0 to 5 min (660 nm, 1.5 W cm⁻², 1 mg mL⁻¹). f Decay of afterglow of p-CDs over time at room temperature after light irradiation (660 nm, 1.5 W cm⁻², 1 mg mL⁻¹). g The lifetime of long afterglow materials (Supplementary Table 2). h Tissue penetration depths of the afterglow with a coverage of chicken breast issues with different thicknesses (the concentration of p-CDs: 1 mg mL⁻¹, 660 nm, 1.5 W cm⁻², 2 min). The imaging in b derived from three independent measurements, and the statistical distribution in b derived from 100 independent measurements. The error bars/bands presented in d–f indicate the statistical distribution derived from three independent measurements, the data show means + SD.