We prepared an orthogonal compact electron‐donor (phenoxazine, PXZ)‐acceptor (naphthalimide, NI) dyad (NI‐PXZ), to study the photophysics of the thermally‐activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), which has a luminescence lifetime of 16.4 ns (99.2 %)/17.0 μs (0.80 %). A weak charge transfer (CT) absorption band was observed for the dyad, indicating non‐negligible electronic coupling between the donor and acceptor at the ground state. Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy shows a fast charge separation (CS) (ca. 2.02∼2.72 ps), the majority of the singlet CS state is short‐lived, especially in polar solvents (τCR = 10.3 ps in acetonitrile, vs. 1.83 ns in toluene, 7.81 ns in n‐hexane). Nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy detects a long‐lived transient species in n‐hexane, which is with a mixed triplet local excited state (3LE) and charge separated state (3CS), the lifetime is 15.4 μs. In polar solvents, such as tetrahydrofuran and acetonitrile, a neat 3CS state was observed, whose lifetimes are 226 ns and 142 ns, respectively. Time‐resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) spectra indicate the existence of strongly spin exchanged 3LE/3CT states, with the effective zero field splitting (ZFS) |D| and |E| parameters of 1484 MHz and 109 MHz, respectively, much smaller than that of the native 3NI state (2475 and 135 MHz). It is rare but solid experimental evidence that a closely‐lying 3LE state is crucial for occurrence of TADF and this 3LE state is an essential intermediate state to facilitate reverse intersystem crossing in TADF systems.

In order to study the spin–orbit charge transfer induced intersystem crossing (SOCT-ISC), Bodipy (BDP)–carbazole (Cz) compact electron donor/acceptor dyads were prepared. Charge transfer (CT) emission bands were observed for dyads showing strong electronic coupling between the donor and the acceptor (coupling matrix elements VDA, 0.06 eV–0.18 eV). Depending on the coupling magnitude, the CT state of the dyads can be either dark or emissive. Equilibrium between the 1LE (locally excited) state and the 1CT state was confirmed by temperature-dependent fluorescence studies. Efficient ISC was observed for the dyads with Cz connected at the meso-position of the BDP. Interestingly, the dyad with non-orthogonal geometry shows the highest ISC efficiency (ΦΔ = 58%), which is different from the previous conclusion. The photo-induced charge separation (CS, time constant: 0.7 ps) and charge recombination (CR, ∼3.9 ns) were studied by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. Nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy indicated that the BDP-localized triplet state was exceptionally long-lived (602 µs). Using pulsed laser excited time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, the SOCT-ISC mechanism was confirmed, and we show that the electron spin polarization of the triplet state is highly dependent on the mutual orientation of the donor and acceptor. The dyads were used as triplet photosensitizers for triplet–triplet-annihilation (TTA) upconversion, and the quantum yield is up to 6.7%. TTA-based delayed fluorescence was observed for the dyads (τDF = 41.5 µs). The dyads were also used as potent photodynamic therapy reagents (light toxicity of IC50 = 0.1 µM and dark toxicity of IC50 = 70.8 µM).

The photophysical properties of a heavy atom-free Bodipy derivative with twisted π-conjugation framework were studied. Efficient intersystem crossing (ISC. Quantum yield: 56%) and exceptionally long-lived triplet state wereobserved (4.5 ms....