The influence of the molecular packing on the room temperature phosphorescence of purely organic luminogens

作者：Jie Yang, Zhen J. Xu, Bin Wang, Xuming Gao, Zichun Ren, Jiaqiang Wang, Yujun Xie, Jian‐Rong Li, Qian Peng, Kanyi Pu, Zhen Li · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-018-03236-6 · 被引用次数：1067 · 研究领域：Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials、Molecular Sensors and Ion Detection、Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics

Abstract Organic luminogens with persistent room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) have attracted great attention for their wide applications in optoelectronic devices and bioimaging. However, these materials are still very scarce, partially due to the unclear mechanism and lack of designing guidelines. Herein we develop seven 10-phenyl-10H-phenothiazine-5,5-dioxide-based derivatives, reveal their different RTP properties and underlying mechanism, and exploit their potential imaging applications. Coupled with the preliminary theoretical calculations, it is found that strong π–π interactions in solid state can promote the persistent RTP. Particularly, CS-CF 3 shows the unique photo-induced phosphorescence in response to the changes in molecular packing, further confirming the key influence of the molecular packing on the RTP property. Furthermore, CS-F with its long RTP lifetime could be utilized for real-time excitation-free phosphorescent imaging in living mice. Thus, our study paves the way for the development of persistent RTP materials, in both the practical applications and the inherent mechanism.