A Universal Strategy for Tunable Persistent Luminescent Materials via Radiative Energy Transfer

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Photochemistry
• Organic Chemistry

Background:

• Persistent luminescent materials (PLMs) are crucial for various applications, including lighting, sensing, and anticounterfeiting.
• Existing methods for tuning PLM properties often involve complex molecular interactions or limited state applicability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a universal strategy for developing organic persistent luminescent materials.
• To enable remote regulation of luminescence color in solid, solution, and gel states.
• To utilize a straightforward radiative energy transfer mechanism for material design.

Main Methods:

• Development of organic molecules acting as energy donors and acceptors.
• Implementation of a radiative energy transfer (reabsorption) mechanism.
• Control of energy acceptor isomerization to modulate luminescence output.

Main Results:

• Achieved persistent luminescence with lifetimes exceeding 0.7 seconds.
• Demonstrated remote color tunability of luminescence by controlling molecular isomerization.
• Validated the universality of the strategy across solid, solution, and gel states.

Conclusions:

• A simple, feasible, and universal strategy for constructing organic PLMs is presented.
• The proposed method offers significant flexibility and operability for material design.
• This work paves the way for novel applications of tunable persistent luminescence.