Recent Advances in Room-Temperature Phosphorescence in Organophosphorus Aggregates

Abstract

Organophosphorus derivatives spanning coordination states from P(III) to P(V) provide a highly tunable platform for designing next-generation room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials. Their diverse λ/σ electronic framework and coordination environments, from lone pair-bearing phosphines to the ionic and dipolar frameworks of phosphonium salts and phosphine chalcogenides, enable precise control over spin-orbit coupling (SOC), intersystem crossing (ISC), molecular aggregation, and solid-state packing. Synthetic interconversions between these species, including oxidation and nucleophilic substitution, offer powerful levers to modulate emission wavelength, lifetime, and quantum yield. Recent advances have delivered efficient, long-lived, and color-tunable RTP systems with applications in optical encryption, anti-counterfeiting, information security, X-ray scintillation, and emerging biomedical technologies, such as in vivo imaging and biosensing. This review summarizes recent progress in high-performance organophosphorus RTP materials, addresses key challenges including near-infrared emission (NIR) and stimuli-responsive systems, and establishes rational design principles to guide the development of next-generation phosphorescent materials for optoelectronic, sensing, and biomedical applications.