Upconverted emission from pyrene and di-tert-butylpyrene using Ir(ppy)3 as triplet sensitizer

Metal-to-ligand charge-transfer sensitized upconverted fluorescence in noncovalent triplet energy transfer assemblies is investigated using Ir(ppy)3 as the sensitizer (ppy=2-phenylpyridine) and pyrene or 3,8-di-tert-butylpyrene as the triplet acceptor/annihilator. Upconverted singlet fluorescence from pyrene or 3,8-di-tert-butylpyrene resulting from triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) is observed following selective excitation of Ir(ppy)3 in deaerated dichloromethane solutions using 450-nm laser pulses. In both systems, the TTA process is confirmed by the near quadratic dependence of the upconverted fluorescence intensity on incident light power, measured by integrating the upconverted delayed fluorescence kinetic traces as a function of incident excitation power. At the relatively high concentrations of pyrene that were utilized, pyrene excimer formation was detected by its characteristic broad emission centered near 470 nm. In essence, selective excitation of Ir(ppy)3 ultimately resulted in the simultaneous sensitization of both singlet pyrene and pyrene excimers, and the latter degrades the energy stored in the pyrene singlet excited state. Furthermore, in the case of di-tert-butylpyrene/Ir(ppy)3, the formation of excimers is successfully blocked because of the presence of the sterically hindering tert-butyl groups. The current work demonstrates that sensitized TTA is indeed accessible to chromophore systems beyond those previously reported, suggesting the generality of the approach.