Substrate-Responsive Pillar[5]arene-Based Organic Room-Temperature Phosphorescence

Tandem Four-Component Reaction to Access Fused Polycycles Exhibiting Aggregation-Enhanced Through-Space Charge Transfer Emission

Rapid construction of new fluorescence emitters is essential in advancing synthetic luminescent materials. This study illustrated a piperidine-promoted reaction of chiral dialdehyde with benzoylacetonitrile and malonitrile, leading to the formation of the 6/6/7 fused cyclic product in good yield. The proposed reaction mechanism involves a dual condensation/cyclization process, achieving the formation of up to six bonds for fused polycycles. The single crystal structure analysis revealed that the fused cyclic skeleton contains face-to-face naphthyl and cyanoalkenyl motifs, which act as the electronic donor and acceptor, respectively, potentially resulting in through-space charge transfer (TSCT) emission. While the TSCT emissions were weak in solution, a notable increase in luminescence intensity was observed upon aggregation, indicating bright fluorescent light. A series of theoretical analyses further supported the possibility of spatial electronic communication based on frontier molecular orbitals, the distance of charge transfer, and reduced density gradient analysis. This work not only provides guidance for the one-step synthesis of complex polycycles, but also offers valuable insights into the design of aggregation-enhanced TSCT emission materials.

A supramolecular photosensitizer based on triphenylamine and pyrazine with aggregation-induced emission properties for high-efficiency photooxidation reactions

Recently, there has been a great interest in the study of photocatalysts (PCs) and photosensitizers (PSs) in the field of organic photocatalysis. In the present study, a pure organic thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecule 4,4'-(12-(pyridin-4-yl)dibenzo[f,h]pyrido[2,3-b]quinoxaline-3,6-diyl)bis(N,N-diphenylaniline) (DPQ-TPA) was designed and synthesized, which not only have excellent TADF property and small energy splitting (ΔEST), but also can self-assembly in water to form cross-linked nanoparticles with exceptional aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics. DPQ-TPA exhibits excellent remarkable selectivity and notably enhances the production capacity of reactive oxygen species (ROS), particularly 1O2, which was employed as a highly effective photocatalyst in the photooxidation reaction of phosphine and hydroazobenzenes under blue light irradiation with high yields up to 94% and 91%, respectively. This work expands the potential application of (donor-acceptor) D-A type AIE-TADF molecules in photocatalytic organic transformations through supramolecular self-assembly.

Förster Resonance Energy Transfer: Stimulus-Responsive Purely Organic Room Temperature Phosphorescence through Dynamic B-N bond

Recently, stimulus-responsive organic materials with room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) properties have attracted significant attention owing to their potential applications in chemical sensing, anticounterfeiting, and displays. However, molecular design currently lacks systematicity and effectiveness. Herein, we report a capture-release strategy for the construction of reversible RTP via B/N Lewis pairs. Specifically, the RTP of the Lewis acid of 7-bromo-5,9-dioxa-13b-boranaphtho[3,2,1-de]anthracene (BrBA) can be deactivated through capturing by the Lewis base, N,N-diphenyl-4-(pyridin-4-yl)aniline (TPAPy), and reactivated by dissociation of B-N bonds to release BrBA. Reversible RTP is attributed to the exceptional self-assembly capability of BrBA, whereas the tunable RTP colors are derived from distinct Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) processes. The potential applications of RTP materials in information storage and anti-counterfeiting were also experimentally validated. The capture-release approach proposed in this study offers an effective strategy for designing stimulus-responsive materials.

Solid-State Emissive Pillar[6]arene Derivative Having Alternate Methylene and Nitrogen Bridges

Macrocyclic arenes show conformational adaptability, which allows host-guest complexations with the size-matched guest molecules. However, their emission properties are often poor in the solid states due to the self-absorption. Herein, we newly synthesized pillar[6]arene derivatives having alternate methylene and nitrogen bridging structures. Solvatochromic study reveals that the nitrogen-embedding into the cyclic structures can strengthen the intramolecular charge transfer (CT) nature compared to that of the linear nitrogen-bridged precursor. Owing to the large Stokes shift in the solid state, one of the nitrogen-embedded pillar[6]arenes shows high absolute photoluminescence quantum yield (ΦPL=0.36). Furthermore, it displays a turn-off sensing ability toward nitrobenzene (NB) vapor; a fluorescence quenching is observed when exposed to the NB vapor. From the structural analysis before and after the exposure of NB vapor, the amorphous nitrogen-embedded pillar[6]arene efficiently co-crystallize with NB and formed non-emissive intermolecular CT complexes with NB.

Polymorphism-Dependent Organic Room Temperature Phosphorescent Scintillation for X-Ray Imaging

Organic phosphorescent scintillating materials have shown great potential for applications in radiography and radiation detection due to their efficient utilization of excitons. However, revealing the relationship between molecule stacking and the phosphorescent radioluminescence of scintillators is still challenging. This study reports on two phenothiazine derivatives with polymorphism-dependent phosphorescence radioluminescence. The experiments reveal that molecule stacking significantly affects the non-radiation decay of the triplet excitons of scintillators, which further determines the phosphorescence scintillation performance under X-ray irradiation. These phosphorescent scintillators exhibit high radio stability and have a low detection limit of 278 nGys-1. Additionally, the potential application of these scintillators in X-ray radiography, based on their X-ray excited radioluminescence properties, is demonstrated. These findings provide a guideline for obtaining high-performance phosphorescent scintillating materials by shedding light on the effect of crystal packing on the radioluminescence of organic molecules.

Enhancing Purely Organic Room Temperature Phosphorescence via Supramolecular Self-Assembly

Long-lived and highly efficient room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials are in high demand for practical applications in lighting and display, security signboards, and anti-counterfeiting. Achieving RTP in aqueous solutions, near-infrared (NIR) phosphorescence emission, and NIR-excited RTP are crucial for applications in bio-imaging, but these goals pose significant challenges. Supramolecular self-assembly provides an effective strategy to address the above problems. This review focuses on the recent advances in the enhancement of RTP via supramolecular self-assembly, covering four key aspects: small molecular self-assembly, cocrystals, the self-assembly of macrocyclic hosts and guests, and multi-stage supramolecular self-assembly. This review not only highlights progress in these areas but also underscores the prominent challenges associated with developing supramolecular RTP materials. The resulting strategies for the development of high-performance supramolecular RTP materials are discussed, aiming to satisfy the practical applications of RTP materials in biomedical science.

Supermolecular Confined Silicon Phosphorescence Nanoprobes for Time-Resolved Hypoxic Imaging Analysis

Room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) nanoprobes play crucial roles in hypoxia imaging due to their high signal-to-background ratio (SBR) in the time domain. However, synthesizing RTP probes in aqueous media with a small size and high quantum yield remains challenging for intracellular hypoxic imaging up to present. Herein, aqueous RTP nanoprobes consisting of naphthalene anhydride derivatives, cucurbit[7]uril (CB[7]), and organosilicon are reported via supermolecular confined methods. Benefiting from the noncovalent confinement of CB[7] and hydrolysis reactions of organosilicon, such small-sized RTP nanoprobes (5-10 nm) exhibit inherent tunable phosphorescence (from 400 to 680 nm) with microsecond second lifetimes (up to ∼158.7 μs) and high quantum yield (up to ∼30%). The as-prepared RTP nanoprobes illustrate excellent intracellular hypoxia responsibility in a broad range from ∼0.1 to 21% oxygen concentrations. Compared to traditional fluorescence mode, the SBR value (∼108.69) of microsecond-range time-resolved in vitro imaging is up to 2.26 times greater in severe hypoxia (<0.1% O2), offering opportunities for precision imaging analysis in a hypoxic environment.

Hydroxyl-functionalized pillar[5]arene with high separation performance for gas chromatography

Here we report the first example of employing hydroxyl-functionalized pillar[5]arene (P5A-C10-OH) as stationary phase for capillary gas chromatographic (GC) separations. The statically coated P5A-C10-OH capillary column possessed moderate polarity and column efficiency of 3233 plates per m determined by n-dodecane. As a result, the P5A-C10-OH column exhibited high-resolution capability for the mixture of 17 analytes from apolar to polar nature. Importantly, it exhibited advantageous performance for high resolution of the challenging isomers of bromonitrobenzene, chloroaniline, bromoaniline, iodoaniline and dimethylaniline with good peak shapes over the P5A-C10 and commercial HP-35 columns. In addition, eight cis-/trans-isomers with diverse types were baseline separated on the P5A-C10-OH column. And the application of detecting isomeric impurities in real samples gave strong evidence of its potential and feasibility for the viable GC analysis.

Chaperone Mimetic Strategy for Achieving Organic Room-Temperature Phosphorescence based on Confined Supramolecular Assembly

The development of organic materials that deliver room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) is highly interesting for potential applications such as anticounterfeiting, optoelectronic devices, and bioimaging. Herein, a molecular chaperone strategy for controlling isolated chromophores to achieve high-performance RTP is demonstrated. Systematic experiments coupled with theoretical evidence reveal that the host plays a similar role as a molecular chaperone that anchors the chromophores for limited nonradiative decay and directs the proper conformation of guests for enhanced intersystem crossing through noncovalent interactions. For deduction of structure-property relationships, various structure-related descriptors that correlate with the RTP performance are identified, thus offering the possibility to quantitatively design and predict the phosphorescent behaviors of these systems. Furthermore, application in thermal printing is well realized for these RTP materials. The present work discloses an effective strategy for efficient construction of organic RTP materials, delivering a modular model which is expected to help expand the diversity of desirable RTP systems.

Efficient Visible-Light-Activated Ultra-Long Room-Temperature Phosphorescence Triggered by Multi-Esterification

The development of ultra-long room-temperature phosphorescence (UL-RTP) in processable amorphous organic materials is highly desirable for applications in flexible displays, anti-counterfeiting, and bio-imaging. However, achieving efficient UL-RTP from amorphous materials remains a challenging task, especially with activation by visible light and a bright afterglow. Here we report a general and rational molecular-design strategy to enable efficient visible-light-excited UL-RTP by multi-esterification of a rigid large-plane phosphorescence core. Notably, multi-esterification minimizes the aggregation-induced quenching and accomplishes a 'four birds with one stone' possibility in the generation and radiation process of UL-RTP: i) shifting the excitation from ultraviolet light to blue-light through enhancing the transition dipole moment of low-lying singlet-states, ii) facilitating the intersystem crossing process through the incorporation of lone-pair electrons, iii) boosting the decay process of long-lived triplet excitons resulting from a significantly increased transition dipole moment, and iv) reducing the intrinsic triplet nonradiative decay by substitution of high-frequency vibrating hydrogen atoms. All these factors synergistically contribute to the most efficient and stable visible-light-stimulated UL-RTP (lifetime up to 2.01 s and efficiency up to 35.4 % upon excitation at 450 nm) in flexible films using multi-esterified coronene, which allows high-tech applications in single-component time-delayed white light-emitting diodes and information technology based on flashlight-activated afterglow encryption.

Cavity-Shape-Dependent Divergent Chemical Reaction inside Aqueous Pd6L4 Cages

Chemical reactions inside the confined pockets of enzyme-mimicking hosts, such as cages and macrocycles, have been an emerging field of interest over the past decade. Although many such reactions are known, the use of such cages toward the divergent synthesis of nonisomeric products has not been well explored. Divergent synthesis is a technique of forming two or more distinct products from the same reagents by changing the catalyst or reaction conditions. Changing the shape of the cage can also change the nature and magnitude of the host-guest interactions. Thus, is it possible for such changes to cause differences in the reaction pathways leading to formation of nonisomeric products? Herein, we report a divergent chemical transformation of anthrone [anthracen-9(10H)-one] inside different water-soluble M6L4 cages. When anthrone was encapsulated inside a newly synthesized M6L4 octahedral cage 1, it dimerized to form dianthrone [9,9'-bianthracen-10,10'(9H,9'H)-dione]. In contrast, when the same chemical reaction was performed inside a M6L4 double-square shaped cage 2, it was oxidized to form anthraquinone [anthracene-9,10-dione]. Similar results were obtained with a different set of isomeric aqueous Pd6 cages 3a (octahedral cage) and 3b (double-square cage), indicating the dependence of the shape of cavity on the divergent synthesis. The present report demonstrates a unique example of different outcomes/results of a reaction depending on the shape of the molecular container, which was driven by the host-guest interactions and the preorganization of the substrates.

Disorder-Enhanced Charge-Transfer-Mediated Room-Temperature Phosphorescence in Polymer Media

Room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) polymers have important applications for biological imaging, oxygen sensing, data encryption, and photodynamic therapy. Despite the many advantages polymeric materials offer such as great control over gas permeability and processing flexibility, disorder is traditionally considered as an intrinsic negative impact on the efficiency for embedded RTP luminophores, as various allowed thermal motions could quench the emitting states. However, we propose that such disorder-enabled freedoms of microscopic motions can be beneficial for charge-transfer-mediated RTP, which is facilitated by molecular conformational changes among different electronic transition states. Using the "classic" pyrene-aniline exciplex as an example, we demonstrate the mutual enhancement of red/near-infrared and green RTP emissions from the pyrene and aniline moieties, respectively, upon doping the aniline polymer with trace pyrene derivatives. In comparison, a pyrene-doped crystal formed with the same aniline structure exhibits only charge-transfer fluorescence with no red or green RTP observed, suggesting that order suppresses the RTP channels. The proposed polymerization strategy may be used as a unified method to generate multi-emissive polymeric RTP materials from a vast pool of known and unknown exciplexes and charge-transfer complexes.