Issue 14, 2019

Annihilator dimers enhance triplet fusion upconversion

Abstract

Optical upconversion is a net process by which two low energy photons are converted into one higher energy photon. There is vast potential to exploit upconversion in applications ranging from solar energy and biological imaging to data storage and photocatalysis. Here, we link two upconverting chromophores together to synthesize a series of novel tetracene dimers for use as annihilators. When compared with the monomer annihilator, TIPS–tetracene, the dimers yield a strong enhancement in the triplet fusion process, also known as triplet–triplet annihilation, as demonstrated via a large increase in upconversion efficiency and an order of magnitude reduction of the threshold power for maximum yield. Along with the ongoing rapid improvements to sensitizer materials, the dimerization improvements demonstrated here open the way to a wide variety of emerging upconversion applications.

Graphical abstract: Annihilator dimers enhance triplet fusion upconversion

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
21 Aug 2018
Accepted
20 Feb 2019
First published
07 Mar 2019
This article is Open Access

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

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 3969-3975

Annihilator dimers enhance triplet fusion upconversion

A. B. Pun, Samuel N. Sanders, M. Y. Sfeir, L. M. Campos and D. N. Congreve, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 3969 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC03725F

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