Issue 3, 2022

Heavy atom oriented orbital angular momentum manipulation in metal-free organic phosphors

Abstract

Metal-free purely organic phosphors (POPs) are emerging materials for display technologies, solid-state lighting, and chemical sensors. However, due to limitations in contemporary design strategies, the intrinsic spin–orbit coupling (SOC) efficiency of POPs remains low and their emission lifetime is pinned in the millisecond regime. Here, we present a design concept for POPs where the two main factors that control SOC—the heavy atom effect and orbital angular momentum—are tightly coupled to maximize SOC. This strategy is bolstered by novel natural-transition-orbital-based computational methods to visualize and quantify angular momentum descriptors for molecular design. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy, prototype POPs were created having efficient room-temperature phosphorescence with lifetimes pushed below the millisecond regime, which were enabled by boosted SOC efficiencies beyond 102 cm−1 and achieved record-high efficiencies in POPs. Electronic structure analysis shows how discrete tuning of heavy atom effects and orbital angular momentum is possible within the proposed design strategy, leading to a strong degree of control over the resulting POP properties.

Graphical abstract: Heavy atom oriented orbital angular momentum manipulation in metal-free organic phosphors

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
14 Oct 2021
Accepted
15 Dec 2021
First published
24 Dec 2021
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., 2022,13, 789-797

Heavy atom oriented orbital angular momentum manipulation in metal-free organic phosphors

W. Shao, H. Jiang, R. Ansari, P. M. Zimmerman and J. Kim, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 789 DOI: 10.1039/D1SC05689A

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.

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