Intermolecular Electronic Coupling of Organic Units for Efficient Persistent Room-Temperature Phosphorescence.

Although persistent room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) emission has been observed for a few pure crystalline organic molecules, there is no consistent mechanism and no universal design strategy for organic persistent RTP (pRTP) materials. A new mechanism for pRTP is presented, based on combining the advantages of different excited-state configurations in coupled intermolecular units, which may be applicable to a wide range of organic molecules. By following this mechanism, we have developed a successful design strategy to obtain bright pRTP by utilizing a heavy halogen atom to further increase the intersystem crossing rate of the coupled units. RTP with a remarkably long lifetime of 0.28 s and a very high quantum efficiency of 5 % was thus obtained under ambient conditions. This strategy represents an important step in the understanding of organic pRTP emission.

An organic molecule with asymmetric structure exhibiting aggregation-induced emission, delayed fluorescence, and mechanoluminescence.

Compounds displaying delayed fluorescence (DF), from severe concentration quenching, have limited applications as nondoped organic light-emitting diodes and material sciences. As a nondoped fluorescent emitter, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) materials show high emission efficiency in their aggregated states. Reported herein is an AIE-active, DF compound in which the molecular interaction is modulated, thereby promoting triplet harvesting in the solid state with a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 93.3%, which is the highest quantum yield, to the best of our knowledge, for long-lifetime emitters. Simultaneously, the compound with asymmetric molecular structure exhibited strong mechanoluminescence (ML) without pretreatment in the solid state, thus exploiting a design and synthetic strategy to integrate the features of DF, AIE, and ML into one compound.

Linearly tunable emission colors obtained from a fluorescent-phosphorescent dual-emission compound by mechanical stimuli.

Organic mechanoluminochromic materials are mechano/piezo-responsive and promising for applications in sensors, displays, and data storage devices. However, their switching range of emission is seriously impeded by only one kind of emission (either a fluorescent or phosphorescent peak) in the spectrum of single organic compounds. This study presents a design strategy for pure organic compounds with excellent room-temperature fluorescent-phosphorescent dual-emission (rFPDE) properties, which combines the effective factors of dipenylsulfone group, crystalline state, and heavy atom effect. Following the principle of color mixing, myriad emission colors with a wide range from orange to purple and across white zone in a straight line in the chromaticity diagram of the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) can be obtained by simply mechanical grinding the compound. The unique properties could be concentrated on a pure organic compound through this design strategy, which provides a new efficient channel for the discovery of efficient mechano-responsive organic materials.

Polymeric-lens-embedded 2D/3D switchable display with dramatically reduced crosstalk.

A two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) display system is presented based on a twisted-nematic cell integrated polymeric microlens array. This device structure has the advantages of fast response time and low operation voltage. The crosstalk of the system is analyzed in detail and two approaches are proposed to reduce the crosstalk: a double lens system and the prism approach. Illuminance distribution analysis proves these two approaches can dramatically reduce crosstalk, thus improving image quality.

Achieving remarkable mechanochromism and white-light emission with thermally activated delayed fluorescence through the molecular heredity principle.

Achieving high contrast mechanochromism (Δλem,max > 100 nm) and white-light emission under mild conditions from a single compound with a simple structure is a great challenge. Herein, we report a novel dual-emissive compound, namely SCP, with an asymmetric molecular structure that fully inherits the photophysical properties of the parent molecules SC2 and SP2. SCP shows high contrast, linearly tunable mechanochromism and bright white-light emission arising from a combination of traditional fluorescence and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). The origin of the dual-emission for SCP was demonstrated based on the analysis of the white-emitting single crystals. In addition, a mechanism of luminochromism for SCP driven by the application of mechanical force is proposed. These observations present a rational design strategy for the development of high performance multi-functional materials for white-light emission.

Very bright mechanoluminescence and remarkable mechanochromism using a tetraphenylethene derivative with aggregation-induced emission.

Organic materials exhibiting mechanoluminescence (ML) are promising for usage in displays, lighting and sensing. However, the mechanism for ML generation remains unclear, and the light-emitting performance of organic ML materials in the solid state has been severely limited by an aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect. Herein, we present two strongly photoluminescent polymorphs (i.e., Cg and Cb) with distinctly different ML activities based on a tetraphenylethene derivative P4TA. As an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) emitter, P4TA perfectly surmounted the ACQ, making the resultant block-like crystals in the Cg phase exhibit brilliant green ML under daylight at room temperature. The ML-inactive prism-like crystals Cb can also have their ML turned on by transitioning toward Cg with the aid of dichloromethane vapor. Moreover, the Cg polymorph shows ML and mechanochromism simultaneously and respectively without and with UV irradiation under a force stimulus, thus suggesting a feasible design direction for the development of efficient and multifunctional ML materials.