Exciplex-induced TADF, persistent RTP and ML in a host–guest doping system

Abstract

The development of multifunctional luminescent materials is of great importance but really difficult, since different luminescent properties have different requirements for molecular structure. Herein, a universal exciplex platform was reported to construct multifunctional luminescent materials, including thermally-activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), persistent room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and mechanoluminescence (ML). With compound PTZ-CN as an electron donor and its derivative of OPTZ-CN as an electron acceptor, the resultant exciplex system demonstrated efficient TADF with the quantum yield up to 61%, persistent RTP lasting for more than 3 minutes and bright blue ML emission. Thus, this work opens a new way to construct multifunctional luminescent materials, which will largely promote the further development of this research area.