title: Intermolecular Electronic Coupling of Organic Units for Efficient Persistent Room-Temperature Phosphorescence.
abstract: Although persistent room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) emission has been observed for a few pure crystalline organic molecules, there is no consistent mechanism and no universal design strategy for organic persistent RTP (pRTP) materials. A new mechanism for pRTP is presented, based on combining the advantages of different excited-state configurations in coupled intermolecular units, which may be applicable to a wide range of organic molecules. By following this mechanism, we have developed a successful design strategy to obtain bright pRTP by utilizing a heavy halogen atom to further increase the intersystem crossing rate of the coupled units. RTP with a remarkably long lifetime of 0.28 s and a very high quantum efficiency of 5 % was thus obtained under ambient conditions. This strategy represents an important step in the understanding of organic pRTP emission.
authors.affiliation: PCFM Lab, GDHPPC Lab, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, State Key Laboratory of OEMT, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: PCFM Lab, GDHPPC Lab, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, State Key Laboratory of OEMT, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
authors.forename: Zhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
authors.forename: Xuepeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: PCFM Lab, GDHPPC Lab, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, State Key Laboratory of OEMT, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
authors.forename: Depei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.affiliation: PCFM Lab, GDHPPC Lab, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, State Key Laboratory of OEMT, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
authors.forename: Yingxiao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.affiliation: PCFM Lab, GDHPPC Lab, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, State Key Laboratory of OEMT, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China. ceszy@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
authors.forename: Cunyuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: PCFM Lab, GDHPPC Lab, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, State Key Laboratory of OEMT, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
authors.forename: Siwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: PCFM Lab, GDHPPC Lab, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, State Key Laboratory of OEMT, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China. chizhg@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhenguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.affiliation: PCFM Lab, GDHPPC Lab, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, State Key Laboratory of OEMT, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
authors.forename: Jiarui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd, China.
authors.forename: Yuan-Chun
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd, China.
authors.forename: Po-Yen
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd, China.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lien
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK. m.r.bryce@durham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Martin R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Bryce
keywords: intersystem crossing; organic materials; phosphorescence; photochemistry; spin-orbit coupling
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