Direct Population of Triplet States for Efficient Organic Afterglow through the Intra/Intermolecular Heavy-Atom Effect
Jie Yuan,
Yongrong Wang,
Binbin Zhou,
Wenjing Xie,
Botao Zheng,
Jingyu Zhang,
Ping Li,
Tian Yu,
Yuanyuan Qi,
Ye Tao,
Runfeng Chen
Affiliations
Jie Yuan
Engineering Technology Training Center, Nanjing Vocational University of Industry Technology, 1 Yangshan North Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Yongrong Wang
State Key Laboratory of Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Binbin Zhou
Engineering Technology Training Center, Nanjing Vocational University of Industry Technology, 1 Yangshan North Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Wenjing Xie
Engineering Technology Training Center, Nanjing Vocational University of Industry Technology, 1 Yangshan North Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Botao Zheng
State Key Laboratory of Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Jingyu Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Ping Li
State Key Laboratory of Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Tian Yu
Engineering Technology Training Center, Nanjing Vocational University of Industry Technology, 1 Yangshan North Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Yuanyuan Qi
State Key Laboratory of Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Ye Tao
State Key Laboratory of Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Runfeng Chen
State Key Laboratory of Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210023, China
Organic afterglow is a fascinating phenomenon with exceptional applications. However, it encounters challenges such as low intensity and efficiency, and typically requires UV-light excitation and facile intersystem crossing (ISC) due to its spin-forbidden nature. Here, we develop a novel strategy that bypasses the conventional ISC pathway by promoting singlet-triplet transition through the synergistic effects of the intra/intermolecular heavy-atom effect in aromatic crystals, enabling the direct population of triplet excited states from the ground state. The resulting materials exhibit a bright organic afterglow with a remarkably enhanced quantum efficiency of up to 5.81%, and a significantly increased organic afterglow lifetime of up to 157 microseconds under visible light. Moreover, given the high-efficiency visible-light excitable organic afterglow emission, the potential application is demonstrated in lifetime-resolved, color-encoded, and excitation wavelength-dependent pattern encryption. This work demonstrates the importance of the direct population method in enhancing the organic afterglow performance and red-shifting the excitation wavelength, and provides crucial insights for advancing organic optoelectronic technologies that involve triplet states.
