Premium
Organic Nanocrystals with Bright Red Persistent Room‐Temperature Phosphorescence for Biological Applications
Author(s) -
Fateminia S. M. Ali,
Mao Zhu,
Xu Shidang,
Yang Zhiyong,
Chi Zhenguo,
Liu Bin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201705945
Subject(s) - phosphorescence , molecule , nanocrystal , alkoxy group , crystallization , photochemistry , materials science , intermolecular force , nanotechnology , chemistry , fluorescence , organic chemistry , alkyl , optics , physics
Persistent room‐temperature phosphorescence (RTP) in pure organic materials has attracted great attention because of their unique optical properties. The design of organic materials with bright red persistent RTP remains challenging. Herein, we report a new design strategy for realizing high brightness and long lifetime of red‐emissive RTP molecules, which is based on introducing an alkoxy spacer between the hybrid units in the molecule. The spacer offers easy Br−H bond formation during crystallization, which also facilitates intermolecular electron coupling to favor persistent RTP. As the majority of RTP compounds have to be confined in a rigid environment to quench nonradiative relaxation pathways for bright phosphorescence emission, nanocrystallization is used to not only rigidify the molecules but also offer the desirable size and water‐dispersity for biomedical applications.