Single-component compounds with wide-range color-tunable ultralong organic phosphorescence

Abstract

Colorful phosphorescence or afterglow is of great theoretical interest and practical value, but the exploitation of new types of color-tunable ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) in a single-component molecule remains challenging. Herein, several triphenylmethane derivative-based single-component phosphors that possess multicolor and ultralong lifetime (1.17 s) are reported. The emission color can be tuned from cyan (460 nm) to orange-red (626 nm) through altering the excitation wavelength. Theoretical calculation studies and X-ray crystal structures reveal that clustered molecules are the reasons for the color-tunable emission. Furthermore, colorful anti-counterfeiting and visual sensing of UV light (from 270 to 400 nm) were conducted. The findings will shed new light on the practical application of triphenylmethane derivatives and provide a new platform for the future design of single-component color-tunable UOP materials.