Issue 12, 2022

Boosting organic afterglow efficiency via triplet–triplet annihilation and thermally-activated delayed fluorescence

Abstract

Due to the spin-forbidden nature of organic phosphorescence, it is challenging to achieve high afterglow efficiency in room-temperature organic afterglow systems, especially for those with long afterglow emission wavelengths. Here we report the incorporation of triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA) and thermally-activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) mechanisms to significantly enhance the organic afterglow efficiency in dopant–matrix systems under ambient conditions. Difluoroboron β-diketonate (BF2bdk) compounds are selected as luminescent dopants and designed with naphthalene functional groups to show a relatively strong tendency of intersystem crossing. 4-Methoxybenzophenone matrices are employed to facilitate intersystem crossing of BF2bdk excited states via dipole–dipole interactions and meanwhile suppress nonradiative decay and quenching of BF2bdk triplet excited states. Besides phosphorescence decay, the dopant–matrix systems exhibit additional pathways to harvest triplet energies via TTA and TADF, leading to the significant improvement of the organic afterglow efficiency. The afterglow materials can be melt-cast into desired shapes, can function as multicolor-encoded anti-counterfeiting objects, and can be processed into aqueous dispersions, which display background-free bioimaging properties.

Graphical abstract: Boosting organic afterglow efficiency via triplet–triplet annihilation and thermally-activated delayed fluorescence

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Okt. 2021
Accepted
01 Janv. 2022
First published
18 Janv. 2022

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022,10, 4795-4804

Boosting organic afterglow efficiency via triplet–triplet annihilation and thermally-activated delayed fluorescence

J. Zhang, J. Li, X. Li, S. Yuan, Y. Sun, Y. Zou, Y. Pan and K. Zhang, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022, 10, 4795 DOI: 10.1039/D1TC04903H

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