Multistimuli-Responsive Room-Temperature Phosphorescence: Adjustable Electrostatic Interactions and the Corresponding Accurate Molecular Packing

Abstract

Multistimuli-responsive room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials have attracted significant attention for their broad application prospects, especially in the fields of anticounterfeiting, sensors, data storage, etc. However, there is still a lack of detailed information on structural changes under various stimuli, hindering a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic relationship between molecular/aggregated structure and RTP property. Herein, taking temperature and acid as external stimuli, variations in the RTP characteristics can be observed in terms of the lifetime and color scales. Moreover, the detailed variations can be controlled by the dynamic regulation of electrostatic interactions between RTP units and the pyridine core, which can be further detected by the corresponding crystal structures under any conditions. The dynamic one-to-one correspondence between molecular/aggregated structure and RTP property has been established, which can prompt the development of multistimuli-responsive materials by deep understanding of the internal mechanism of dynamic RTP property.