Dendronized Encapsulation with Hierarchical Rigidification Enabling Robust Solution Room‐Temperature Phosphorescence, Efficient Electroluminescence and Ultralong Afterglow

Organic room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials face a fundamental challenge: their environment-specific phosphorescent behavior fundamentally conflicts with the growing demand for multifunctional materials. To overcome this limitation, a multiscale confinement strategy is developed that integrates intramolecular flexible encapsulation with intermolecular rigid immobilization. Dendronized donor-acceptor molecules are engineered with alkyl-chain-carbazole dendrons to achieve intramolecular encapsulation. This design enables abundant spatial interactions, balancing conformational flexibility (for solution processing) and emission rigidity. Multiscale confinement via molecular aggregation and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) doping further enhances rigidification. Together, these mechanisms suppress nonradiative transitions across four temporal orders of magnitude (10<sup>-3</sup>-10<sup>0</sup> s). The resulting material system exhibits unprecedented environment-adaptive RTP properties: 1) ≈9 ms solution-phase RTP lifetime under ambient conditions without deoxygenation, representing the longest lifetime among solution-dissolved RTP systems; 2) 72% photoluminescence quantum yield in doped films and 17.2% external quantum efficiency in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), making them among the most efficient solution-processed RTP-OLEDs; 3) Ultralong afterglow with 1.16 s persistent RTP and 10 s naked-eye-detectable emission. Notably, this work represents the first demonstration of a single material simultaneously enabling solution-phase RTP, high-efficiency electroluminescence, and long afterglow. This intra/intermolecular engineering overcomes single-environment limitations, establishing universal design principles for adaptive luminescent materials in various optoelectronic applications.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Science
Published
2025-08-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202511973
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.04

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article

Dendronized Encapsulation with Hierarchical Rigidification Enabling Robust Solution Room‐Temperature Phosphorescence, Efficient Electroluminescence and Ultralong Afterglow

Chensen Li, Guohua Xie, Bo Xu, Jacky W. Y. Lam et al.
2 citations
Advanced Science
Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials
1.04
article

Dendronized Encapsulation with Hierarchical Rigidification Enabling Robust Solution Room‐Temperature Phosphorescence, Efficient Electroluminescence and Ultralong Afterglow

Chensen Li, Guohua Xie, Bo Xu, Jacky W. Y. Lam, Zheng Qing Zhao, Ben Zhong Tang, Lianrui Hu, Song Zhang, Zhenchen Lou
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Organic room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials face a fundamental challenge: their environment-specific phosphorescent behavior fundamentally conflicts with the growing demand for multifunctional materials. To overcome this limitation, a multiscale confinement strategy is developed that integrates intramolecular flexible encapsulation with intermolecular rigid immobilization. Dendronized donor-acceptor molecules are engineered with alkyl-chain-carbazole dendrons to achieve intramolecular encapsulation. This design enables abundant spatial interactions, balancing conformational flexibility (for solution processing) and emission rigidity. Multiscale confinement via molecular aggregation and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) doping further enhances rigidification. Together, these mechanisms suppress nonradiative transitions across four temporal orders of magnitude (10<sup>-3</sup>-10<sup>0</sup> s). The resulting material system exhibits unprecedented environment-adaptive RTP properties: 1) ≈9 ms solution-phase RTP lifetime under ambient conditions without deoxygenation, representing the longest lifetime among solution-dissolved RTP systems; 2) 72% photoluminescence quantum yield in doped films and 17.2% external quantum efficiency in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), making them among the most efficient solution-processed RTP-OLEDs; 3) Ultralong afterglow with 1.16 s persistent RTP and 10 s naked-eye-detectable emission. Notably, this work represents the first demonstration of a single material simultaneously enabling solution-phase RTP, high-efficiency electroluminescence, and long afterglow. This intra/intermolecular engineering overcomes single-environment limitations, establishing universal design principles for adaptive luminescent materials in various optoelectronic applications.

Advanced ScienceVol. 12(42)
Xiamen University (CN), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK), Nanjing University of Science and Technology (CN), Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics (CN), Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CN), Ministry of Education and Child Care (CA), East China Normal University (CN), University of Hong Kong (HK)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Openalex Percentile: Top 23%
Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials
1.04
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