Room-temperature phosphorescence color tuning by a protonic acid doping strategy

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Organic Electronics
• Photophysics

Background:

• Organic/polymer host-guest systems are crucial for optoelectronic applications.
• Controlling phosphorescence color is essential for advanced display and lighting technologies.
• Protonic acid doping is an emerging strategy for material property modulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of protonic acid doping on the phosphorescence color of 1-naphthylamine (1-AN) in polymer matrices.
• To demonstrate a novel and efficient method for tuning phosphorescence emission via acid doping.
• To compare self-doping and external doping strategies using protonic acids.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of 1-naphthylamine (1-AN) doped polymer systems using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA).
• Introduction of hydrochloric acid (HCl) as an external dopant into the 1-AN@PVA system.
• Spectroscopic analysis to characterize phosphorescence emission and color changes.

Main Results:

• 1-AN doped in PVA exhibited yellow phosphorescence.
• 1-AN doped in PAA (self-doping) showed green phosphorescence.
• Addition of HCl to 1-AN@PVA (external doping) also resulted in green phosphorescence, confirming the effect of protonic acid.

Conclusions:

• Protonic acid doping is an effective strategy for modulating the phosphorescence color of organic/polymer systems.
• The study successfully demonstrated color tuning from yellow to green using both self-doping and external doping approaches.
• This work offers a facile and efficient method for developing tunable phosphorescent materials.