Large-Area, Flexible, Transparent, and Long-Lived Polymer-Based Phosphorescence Films

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Organic Electronics
• Photophysics

Background:

• Polymer-based room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials offer promise for organic electronics due to flexibility and large-area production.
• Challenges exist in populating and stabilizing triplet excited states at room temperature for efficient RTP.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop large-area, flexible, and transparent RTP materials with long-lived emission.
• To investigate the role of hydrogen bonding and coassembly in achieving stable RTP.

Main Methods:

• Doping organic chromophores (3,6-diphenyl-9H-carbazole and 7H-dibenzo[c,g]carbazole) into a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrix.
• Utilizing a hydrogen-bonding and coassembly strategy to enhance RTP properties.
• Characterizing phosphorescence emission, afterglow duration, and luminance.

Main Results:

• Achieved large-area, flexible, transparent RTP films with long-lived phosphorescence (up to 2044.86 ms) and afterglow (over 20 s).
• Demonstrated high absolute luminance (158.4 mcd m^2) for DPCz-doped PVA films.
• Suppressed nonradiative decay via hydrogen bonding and minimized singlet-triplet energy gap through coassembly.

Conclusions:

• The developed RTP materials exhibit excellent mechanical properties and afterglow performance.
• Successfully fabricated flexible 3D objects and multichannel afterglow light-emitting diode arrays.
• Presents a viable pathway for producing advanced, large-area, flexible, and transparent emitting materials.