Issue 15, 2018

Mechano-induced persistent room-temperature phosphorescence from purely organic molecules

Abstract

The persistent room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) of purely organic materials in the solid state has recently attracted much research interest and found promising, rapid and visual applications by the naked eye, after the removal of the excitation source. However, almost all reported organic persistent RTP processes are induced by using a UV-light irradiation source. In this report, persistent RTP with an emission lifetime as long as 0.15 s which can be induced not only by photoirradiation but also by mechanical action is presented, which merges mechano-induced luminescence and persistent RTP together. It is found that such persistent RTP is produced through intermolecular electronic coupling (IEC) of units with different excited state configurations. Interestingly, there are two different crystals with and without mechano-induced persistent RTP which can be grown from this organic material, as such a new type of mechano-luminescence (ML) is strongly dependent on their intermolecular interactions. Furthermore, the intensity of such mechano-induced persistent RTP can be increased by lowing the temperature as well, similar to that of photo-induced persistent RTP. Notably, these two crystals exhibit a ML enhancement and ML “turn on”, respectively, with decreasing temperature. Therefore, such mechano-induced persistent RTP provides an example of new types of organic luminescent materials, which is a missing jigsaw piece of organic luminescence and important for both fundamental research and practical applications of both persistent RTP and ML of organic materials.

Graphical abstract: Mechano-induced persistent room-temperature phosphorescence from purely organic molecules

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
26 Jan 2018
Accepted
18 Mar 2018
First published
19 Mar 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 3782-3787

Mechano-induced persistent room-temperature phosphorescence from purely organic molecules

Y. Mu, Z. Yang, J. Chen, Z. Yang, W. Li, X. Tan, Z. Mao, T. Yu, J. Zhao, S. Zheng, S. Liu, Y. Zhang, Z. Chi, J. Xu and Matthew. P. Aldred, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 3782 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC00429C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements