The trade-off anionic modulation in metal–organic glasses showing color-tunable persistent luminescence

Abstract

Ultralong room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials provide exciting opportunities for the rational design of persistent luminescence owing to their long-lived excitons. However, conventional rare-earth-based all-inorganic emitters involve high cost and harsh synthesis conditions, and purely organic systems may require complicated synthesis routes and tedious purification. Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop a cost-effective and easily manufacturable method for achieving color-tunable RTP-TADF with a long afterglow. Herein, we demonstrate a rational strategy to introduce different anions (Cl⁻, Br⁻ and OAc⁻ ions) into a Zn-based metal–organic scaffold, which can improve the crystal rigidity and achieve a well-balanced RTP-TADF. Both theoretical and experimental studies have demonstrated that the adjustment of different anions can effectively modulate the spin–orbit coupling (SOC) and the energy gap of singlet–triplet states (ΔE_ST) and then tailor the afterglow lifetime. Moreover, we prepared dye-doped metal–organic hybrid glasses with remarkable potential for the color-tunable afterglow. Therefore, this work not only provides a new horizon for modulating crystal and glass states with color/lifetime-tunable persistent luminescence, but also contributes to optical information storage and anti-counterfeiting technology.