– Organic Phosphorescence- 

Long-lived room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) from organic molecular crystals attracts great attention. The features of the persistent luminescence strongly depend on the electronic properties of the molecular components, mainly p-conjugated donor-acceptor (D-A) chromophores, and on their molecular packing in the crystal.

Here, a new strategy is developed by rationally designing molecular emitters incorporating and combining for the first time a bridge for sigma-conjugation between the D and A units and a structure-directing unit for H-bond-directed supramolecular self-assembly.

The molecular crystals exhibit RTP quantum yields up to 20% and lifetimes up to 520 ms. Single crystal analysis reveals an unprecedented ‘columnar-like’ supramolecular structure stabilized by intermolecular H-bonding as structural key parameter.

From all the findings, a new set of guidelines for obtaining efficient long-lived phosphorescent molecular crystals is established.

Principal Inverstigator: André Jean Attias