Triphenylphosphine (Ph 3 P) derivatives, well-known ligands in transition metal catalysts, have been widely used in organic reactions such as Crabtree's catalyst, [11] Wilkinson's catalyst, [12] and Grubbs' catalyst. [13] During our synthetic study of catalysts for alkyne metathesis under ambient condition, [14] we unexpectedly observed that tris(2-methoxyphenyl) phosphine RTP-SDFMU-1 (Figure 1a), a simple and commercially available organic compound, displayed green afterglows lasting for ≈6 s (Figure S1f, Supporting Information) under natural light in air at 298 K in the solid state after the UV lamp (λ = 365 nm) was turned off (Figure 1b,c). Encouraged by this interesting finding, we investigated the photophysical properties of RTP-SDFMU-1 and related compounds, along with theoretical calculations, X-ray single crystal diffraction analysis, and application in anticounterfeiting.

Colorful phosphorescence or afterglow is of great theoretical interest and practical value while the exploitation of new types of color-tunable ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) in a single-component molecule remains challenging....

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Due to the unclear mechanism and lack of effective design for color‐tunable ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) in a single‐component molecule, the development of new types of single‐component UOP materials with color‐tunable property remains challenging. Herein, commercially available triphenylmethylamine‐based single‐component phosphors featuring color‐tunablity and ultralong lifetime (0.56 s) are reported. The changed afterglow colors from cyan to orange were observed after different wavelengths of UV excitation. Crystal structure and calculation studies show that multiple emission centers in the aggregated states may be responsible for the color‐tunablity. In addition, visual probing of UV light (from 260 to 370 nm) and colorful anti‐counterfeiting were conducted. More importantly, UV light ranging from 350 to 370 nm could be detected with the minimal interval of 2 nm. The findings provide a new type of single‐component color‐tunable UOP materials and shed new light on mechanism and design for such materials.