A facile co-crystallization approach to fabricate two-component carbon dot composites showing time-dependent evolutive room temperature phosphorescence colors

= 582 ms). Studies show that the time-dependent RTP colors originated from two primary emissive centers, low-energy emission of CDs and high-energy emission of host matrix activated by CDs. Due to their distinguishable RTP colors with differentiated lifetimes, the ratios of two RTP emissive bands changed with time during the decay process, resulting in the continuous RTP colors variation in real-time. This two-component carbon dot-based co-crystallization strategy may open a new avenue for the development of time-dependent afterglow color materials.