Developing metal-free organic phosphorescent materials is promising but challenging because achieving emissive triplet relaxation that outcompetes the vibrational loss of triplets, a key process to achieving phosphorescence, is difficult without heavy metal atoms. While recent studies reveal that bright room temperature phosphorescence can be realized in purely organic crystalline materials through directed halogen bonding, these organic phosphors still have limitations to practical applications due to the stringent requirement of high quality crystal formation. Here we report bright room temperature phosphorescence by embedding a purely organic phosphor into an amorphous glassy polymer matrix. Our study implies that the reduced beta (β)-relaxation of isotactic PMMA most efficiently suppresses vibrational triplet decay and allows the embedded organic phosphors to achieve a bright 7.5% phosphorescence quantum yield. We also demonstrate a microfluidic device integrated with a novel temperature sensor based on the metal-free purely organic phosphors in the temperature-sensitive polymer matrix. This unique system has many advantages: (i) simple device structures without feeding additional temperature sensing agents, (ii) bright phosphorescence emission, (iii) a reversible thermal response, and (iv) tunable temperature sensing ranges by using different polymers.

Room Temperature Phosphorescence of Metal-Free Organic Materials in Amorphous Polymer Matrices

Fluorescence and phosphorescence from higher excited states of organic molecules.

Fast intersystem crossing is observed in the S(1)(1)nπ* state of N-heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and carbonyl compounds. It is attributed to spin-orbit coupling with the (3)ππ* state in the same energy region. The strong singlet-triplet mixing was confirmed by large Zeeman splitting of rotational lines in a high-resolution spectrum. For the S(1)(1)ππ* state of aromatic hydrocarbons, the observed Zeeman splitting was found to be considerably small, and intersystem crossing was considered to be minor. These facts are in accordance with El-Sayed's rule, which states spin-orbit coupling is forbidden between the (1)ππ* and (3)ππ* states. The Zeeman splitting of several derivatives was also observed and the substitution effect on the intersystem crossing rate is discussed.

Intersystem crossing in the 1nπ* and 1ππ* states.

A combined femtosecond Kerr gated time-resolved fluorescence (fs-KTRF) and picosecond Kerr gated time-resolved resonance Raman (ps-KTR3) study is reported for two p-hydroxyphenacyl (pHP) caged phototriggers, HPDP and HPA, in neat acetonitrile and water/acetonitrile (1:1 by volume) solvents. Fs-KTRF spectroscopy was employed to characterize the spectral properties and dynamics of the singlet excited states, and the ps-KTR3 was used to monitor the formation and subsequent reaction of triplet state. These results provide important evidence for elucidation of the initial steps for the pHP deprotection mechanism. An improved fs-KTRF setup was developed to extend its detectable spectral range down to the 270 nm UV region while still covering the visible region up to 600 nm. This combined with the advantage of KTRF in directly monitoring the temporal evolution of the overall fluorescence profile enables the first time-resolved observation of dual fluorescence for pHP phototriggers upon 267 nm excitation. The two...

Ultrafast time-resolved study of photophysical processes involved in the photodeprotection of p-hydroxyphenacyl caged phototrigger compounds.

In this contribution, we finely tuned the singlet–triplet energy gap (ΔEST) of AIE-active materials to modulate their fluorescence, phosphorescence and delay fluorescence via rational molecular design and investigated the possible ways to harvest their triplet energy in OLEDs. Noteworthily, two molecules o-TPA-3TPE-o-PhCN and o-TPA-3TPE-p-PhCN with larger ΔEST values (0.59 eV and 0.45 eV, respectively) emitted efficient long-lived low temperature phosphorescence in their glassy solutions and exhibited efficient crystallization-induced room temperature phosphorescence (RTP). Meanwhile, it was the first time to observe a novel crystallization-induced delay fluorescence phenomenon in another AIE-active molecule p-TPA-3TPE-p-PhCN owing to its very small ΔEST value (0.21 eV). It was also found that molecules with various ΔEST values showed significantly different temperature sensitivity. Non-doped electroluminescent (EL) devices using these molecules as light-emitting layers were fabricated, exhibiting external quantum efficiencies (EQE) higher than theoretical values of purely singlet emitter type devices. Particularly, p-TPA-3TPE-p-PhCN showed outstanding device performances with high luminance and efficiencies up to 36 900 cd m−2, 11.2 lm W−1, 12.8 cd A−1 and 4.37%, respectively, considering that its solid-state quantum yield was only 42%. All the above observations suggested that tuning the ΔEST values of AIE materials is a powerful methodology to generate many more interesting and meaningful optoelectronic properties.

Tuning the singlet–triplet energy gap of AIE luminogens: crystallization-induced room temperature phosphorescence and delay fluorescence, tunable temperature response, highly efficient non-doped organic light-emitting diodes

Intramolecular Radiationless Transitions in Substituted Benzaldehydes

A phosphorescence study of jet-cooled xanthone

Phosphorescence and fluorescence excitation spectra of oxalyl chloride (COCl)2 have been observed in a supersonic jet. Strong phosphorescence was observed for excitation of the band of the T13Au(nπ*) ← S0 transition. From a vibrational analysis, it is shown that the molecule has C2h symmetry in the T1 excited state as well as in the S0 ground state. Small splittings due to 35Cl and 37Cl isotopes were found in several vibronic bands. For the excitation of the S1 band, phosphorescence with a short lifetime was observed, indicating fast intersystem crossing in the origin level. In the higher energy region, we could not observe phosphorescence but only weak fluorescence. It suggests existence of active nonradiative processes such as internal conversion and predissociation in the vibrationally excited levels of the S1 state. A single-vibronic-level (SVL) dispersed phosphorescence spectrum has also been observed for the excitation of the T1 CO stretching band. The spectrum was dominated by bands at the same wav...

Masahide Kiritani

Papers

Intramolecular Radiationless Transitions in Substituted Benzaldehydes

A phosphorescence study of jet-cooled xanthone

Radiative and Nonradiative Processes in the Excited States of Jet-Cooled Oxalyl Chloride