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Crystallization-induced phosphorescence of benzils at room temperature

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  • Special Topic Aggregated-Induced Emission
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Abstract

Efficient room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) is rarely observed in pure organic luminogens. However, we have newly observed that benzil and its derivatives are nonluminescent in solvents and thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates, but become highly phosphorescent in crystal state at room temperature, exhibiting typical crystallization-induced phosphorescence (CIP) characteristics. The CIP phenomenon is ascribed to the restriction of intramolecular rotations in crystals owing to effective intermolecular interactions. Such intermolecular interactions greatly rigidify the molecular conformation and significantly decrease the nonradiative deactivation channels of the triplet excitons, thus giving boosted phosphorescent emission at room temperature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    YongYang Gong, Hong Li, YiRen Zhang, WangZhang Yuan & YongMing Zhang

  2. Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    YeQiang Tan & JingZhi Sun

  3. Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Ben Zhong Tang

  4. HKUST Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, 518057, China

    Ben Zhong Tang

Authors
  1. YongYang Gong
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  2. YeQiang Tan
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  3. Hong Li
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  4. YiRen Zhang
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  5. WangZhang Yuan
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  6. YongMing Zhang
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  7. JingZhi Sun
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  8. Ben Zhong Tang
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Correspondence to WangZhang Yuan, YongMing Zhang or Ben Zhong Tang.

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Gong, Y., Tan, Y., Li, H. et al. Crystallization-induced phosphorescence of benzils at room temperature. Sci. China Chem. 56, 1183–1186 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-013-4930-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-013-4930-9

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