Enabling long-lived organic room temperature phosphorescence in polymers by subunit interlocking

Abstract

Long-lived room temperature phosphorescence (LRTP) is an attractive optical phenomenon in organic electronics and photonics. Despite the rapid advance, it is still a formidable challenge to explore a universal approach to obtain LRTP in amorphous polymers. Based on the traditional polyethylene derivatives, we herein present a facile and concise chemical strategy to achieve ultralong phosphorescence in polymers by ionic bonding cross-linking. Impressively, a record LRTP lifetime of up to 2.1 s in amorphous polymers under ambient conditions is set up. Moreover, multicolor long-lived phosphorescent emission can be procured by tuning the excitation wavelength in single-component polymer materials. These results outline a fundamental principle for the construction of polymer materials with LRTP, endowing traditional polymers with fresh features for potential applications.

A clustering-triggered emission strategy for tunable multicolor persistent phosphorescence

“…Currently, the development of smart luminescent materials with tunable multicolor emission upon external stimuli, such as temperature, light, electric/magnetic eld, excitation intensity and pressure, is receiving increasing attention because of their unique photophysical properties and potential applications in information encryption, visual detection of UV lights, anticounterfeiting, sensing and bioassays. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Thus far, despite the fact that multicolor luminescence has been successfully achieved through the modulation of crystallinity, molecular conformation/packing and composition of the compounds, or the combination of different emitters, [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] it remains challenging to realize the tunability of persistent phosphorescence in pure organic single-component systems, [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] particularly in single crystals. 14 While there is growing interest in the achievement of pure organic persistent room temperature phosphorescence (p-RTP), [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] little attention has been given to its tunability, [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] presumably because of the high susceptibility of triplets 28-38 and the difficulty in the construction of diverse triplet emissive populations.…”

“…Very recently, tunable multicolor persistent phosphorescence from pure organics has been observed in certain nonaromatic luminophores, [18][19][20] aromatic crystals 14 and ionized or doped polymers, [15][16][17] at cryogenic temperatures (i.e., 77 K) and/or even under ambient conditions. For example, Huang and co-workers demonstrated tunable p-RTP in 2,4,6-trimethoxy-1,3,5-triazine (TMOT) crystals, 14 and Zhao et al reported a tunable aerglow from blue to red by tuning the aggregation state of pyrene derivatives in poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) lms.…”

“…[18][19][20]39 Taking together all the preceding reports, it is clear that the presence of multiple emissive centers alongside rigid conformations are necessary for tunable multicolor phosphorescence. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] These features, fortunately, are exactly the two key points required for achieving unusual luminescence from nonconventional luminogens devoid of classic conjugates. [39][40][41][42][43] On account of the less effective delocalization of the subunits, individual non-conventional luminophores are virtually nonemissive.…”

Amorphous Ionic Polymers with Color‐Tunable Ultralong Organic Phosphorescence

“…Recently, Yuan and co‐workers first reported that ionization provided a set of nonaromatic polymers with enhanced phosphorescence based on a clustering‐triggered emission mechanism owing to the stiffening of conformations through the electrostatic interaction . Our group also prepared a series of aromatic polystyrene derivatives with ultralong phosphorescence (UOP) by subunit interlocking with different metal ions, and a record UOP lifetime of up to 2.1 s was achieved . Nevertheless, new purely organic phosphorescence polymers still need to be discovered owing to the urgent need to expand the scope of RTP materials for potential applications in photonics fields.…”

Photo-induced Afterglow of Carbon Dots for Dynamic Patterning

“…Unlike others, the PL signal requires speci c excitation, which therefore guarantees advanced data con dentiality in anti-counterfeit and optical encryption applications. Among all reported PL materials, the materials with long afterglow features show very unique persistent luminescence with signi cantly prolonged lifetimes (ms~s), which enables naked-eye observation of their delayed emission with enhanced signal-to-noise ratio [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] . Despite their fascinating properties, long afterglow materials with PIOM characters are still rarely reported.…”