An Unexpected Chromophore–Solvent Reaction Leads to Bicomponent Aggregation‐Induced Phosphorescence

Abstract

Organic luminogens with persistent room‐temperature phosphorescence (RTP) have found a wide range of applications. However, many RTP luminogens are prone to severe quenching in the crystalline state. Herein, we report a strategy to construct a donor‐sp3‐acceptor type luminogen that exhibits aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) while the donor‐sp2‐acceptor counterpart structure exhibits a non‐emissive solid state. Unexpectedly, it was discovered that a trace amount (0.01 %) of the structurally similar derivative, produced by a side reaction with the DMF solvent, could induce strong RTP with an absolute RTP yield up to 25.4 % and a lifetime of 48 ms, although the substance does not show RTP by itself. Single‐crystal XRD‐based calculations suggest that n–σ* orbital interactions as a result of structural similarity may be responsible for the strong RTP in the bicomponent system. This study provides a new insight into the design of multi‐component, solid‐state RTP materials from organic molecular systems.

Modulating Room Temperature Phosphorescence by Oxidation of Thianthrene to Achieve Pure Organic Single-Molecule White-Light Emission

“…Recently, a series of important advances have been made in pure organic RTP materials, [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] which provide a great opportunity and a solid foundation to develop pure organic SMWLE materials through a combined mechanism of fluorescence and RTP. However, pure organic phosphorescence is commonly observed under rigorous conditions (e.g., cryogenic or vacuum) as a result of spin-forbidden transition of T 1 →S 0 , leading to very rare dual-emission real systems of fluorescence and RTP under ambient conditions.…”

Activating Room-Temperature Phosphorescence of Organic Luminophores via External Heavy-Atom Effect and Rigidity of Ionic Polymer Matrix

“…Photoluminescent materials, including fluorescent and phosphorescent materials, have become a research spotlight since their discovery (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). Compared with fluorescent materials, materials with room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) have received special attention for their larger Stokes shift and longer lifetime (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). These advantages promote their applications in the fields such as molecular switches (14)(15)(16)(17)(18), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) (19)(20)(21)(22)(23), anticounterfeiting (24) and bioimaging (25).…”

Activating Room-Temperature Phosphorescence of Organic Luminophores via External Heavy-Atom Effect and Rigidity of Ionic Polymer Matrix

“…Photoluminescent materials, including fluorescent and phosphorescent materials, have become a research spotlight since their discovery (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). Compared with fluorescent materials, materials with room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) have received special attention for their larger Stokes shift and longer lifetime (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). These advantages promote their applications in the fields such as molecular switches (14)(15)(16)(17)(18), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) (19)(20)(21)(22)(23), anticounterfeiting (24) and bioimaging (25).…”