Phosphine-Manipulated p-π and π-π Synergy Enables Efficient Ultralong Organic Room-Temperature Phosphorescence.

Abstract

Organic room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) attracts extensive attentions, but still faces the challenge of achieving both high RTP efficiencies (ηRTP ) and long lifetimes (τRTP ), due to the intrinsic contradiction between triplet radiation and stabilization. In this work, we developed three carbazole-triphenylphosphine hybrids named xCzTPP, in which phosphine groups provide nonbonding electrons and steric hindrance to modulate intermolecular p-π and π-π interactions. With the rational orientations and spatial positions of functional groups, para-substituted pCzTPP achieves high ηRTP over 10 % and more than twofold increased τRTP (>600 ms), compared to ortho- and meta- isomers. Theoretical simulation and photophysical investigation indicate that the strongest intermolecular p-π and π-π electronic interplays of pCzTPP harmonize high transition probability of 3 pπ state and triplet stability of 3 ππ state, reflecting the p-π and π-π synergy in RTP process.