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Recent advances in room-temperature phosphorescent materials by manipulating intermolecular interactions

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Abstract

Metal-free room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials have the characteristics of large Stokes shift, long lifetime, and triplet state transition. They exhibit application potential in various fields, such as bioimaging, computer display, sensor, and anti-counterfeiting and have drawn much research interest. Recent work showed that manipulating intermolecular interactions (e.g., crystallization, polymerization, and rigid matrix) and host-guest assembly to restrain nonradiative transitions and isolate phosphor from oxygen as much as possible is a feasible way to obtain various types of efficient RTP materials. In some cases, intermolecular interactions also facilitated RTP emission by regulating the triplet state. On the other hand, heavy atoms (Br, I, etc.), heteroatoms (N, O, S, etc.), or carbonyls were introduced to the molecular skeleton through molecular engineering to enhance intersystem crossing, which is important for populating the triplet exciton. By comprehensively using the aforesaid strategies, great progress has been made for RTP materials. In this mini-review, we summarized recent advances in organic RTP materials based on manipulating intermolecular interactions. Typical host-guest assembly, hydrogen-bond assembly, energy transfer process, and exciplex emission system-based RTP materials were well illustrated. In summary, the current challenges and prospects for development in this field were presented.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21788102, 22125803, 22020102006, 21871083), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (2018SHZDZX03), the Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (20XD1421300), the “Shu Guang” Project supported by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Shanghai Education Development Foundation (19SG26), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and the China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX20220106).

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  1. Key Laboratory for Advance Materials and Feringa Noble Prize Scientist Joint Research Centre, Frontiers Science for Materiobiology and Dynamic Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Liangwei Ma & Xiang Ma

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Ma, L., Ma, X. Recent advances in room-temperature phosphorescent materials by manipulating intermolecular interactions. Sci. China Chem. 66, 304–314 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-022-1400-6

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