Luminescence color-tuning through polymorph doping: preparation of a white-emitting solid from a single...

We report the luminescent color tuning of a new complex, 2-benzothiophenyl(4-methoxyphenyl isocyanide)gold(I) (1), by using a new "polymorph doping" approach. The slow crystallization of the complex 1 afforded three different pure polymorphic crystals with blue, green, and orange emission under UV-light irradiation. The crystal structures of pure polymorphs of 1 were investigated in detail by means of single-crystal X-ray analyses. Theoretical calculations based on the single-crystal structures provided qualitative explanation of the difference in the excited energy-levels of the three polymorphs of 1. In sharp contrast, the rapid precipitation of 1, with the optimized conditions reproducibly afforded homogeneous powder materials showing solid-state white-emission with Commission Internationale de l'Éclairage (CIE) 1931 chromaticity coordinates of (0.33, 0.35), which is similar to pure white. New "polymorphic doping" has been revealed to be critical to this white emission through spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction analyses. The coexistence of the multiple polymorphs of 1 within the homogeneous powder materials and the ideal mixing of multiple luminescent colors gave its white emission accompanied with energy transfer from the predominant green-emitting polymorph to the minor orange-emitting polymorph.