Enhanced phosphorescence emission by incorporating aromatic halides into an entangled coordination framework based on naphthalenediimide.

ABSTRACT

Phosphorescence emission at room temperature is turned on in an entangled porous coordination polymer (PCP) with naphthalenediimide (NDI) as chromophore, by incorporating halogenated guests into the pores. The phosphorescent efficiency is drastically increased by the incorporation of aromatic halide guests in comparison with the incorporation of nonaromatic derivatives. Aromatic halide guests trigger a structural transformation, which allows a strong interaction with the NDI ligand in the framework through charge-transfer complexation, and provides an extra population process of the triplet state. The long-lived photoinduced triplet states, with an emission wavelength in the red region of the visible spectrum, demonstrated by this PCP, may open the door for potential uses, for example, as singlet-oxygen generators or for bio-imaging applications.