Simultaneously Improving Lifetime and Efficiency of Organic Room Temperature Phosphorescence upon Tuning Noncovalent Intramolecular Interactions

Abstract

Room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) organic emitters have gained increasing attention in the fields of lighting, security and bioimaging. However, lack of clear mechanism and universal methods of regulating RTP property impeded the further development of RTP materials. Most importantly, the long lifetime and high quantum yield (QY) of RTP can hardly be achieved at the same time. Herein, we report a molecular design strategy to improve both lifetime and QY of RTP through intramolecular interaction. The enhancement of lifetime and QY were up to one order, respectively by introducing S···O noncovalent intramolecular interactions into the molecule. The X-ray single crystal analysis and theoretical calculations were performed together to give the solid evidence that the intramolecular interaction can not only suppress the nonradiative transition but also stabilize the triple states. This study provided a novel idea of developing high-performance RTP materials.