title: Versatile Room-Temperature-Phosphorescent Materials Prepared from N-Substituted Naphthalimides: Emission Enhancement and Chemical Conjugation.
abstract: Purely organic materials with room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) are currently under intense investigation because of their potential applications in sensing, imaging, and displaying. Inspired by certain organometallic systems, where ligand-localized phosphorescence ((3) π-π*) is mediated by ligand-to-metal or metal-to-ligand charge transfer (CT) states, we now show that donor-to-acceptor CT states from the same organic molecule can also mediate π-localized RTP. In the model system of N-substituted naphthalimides (NNIs), the relatively large energy gap between the NNI-localized (1) π-π* and (3) π-π* states of the aromatic ring can be bridged by intramolecular CT states when the NNI is chemically modified with an electron donor. These NNI-based RTP materials can be easily conjugated to both synthetic and natural macromolecules, which can be used for RTP microscopy.
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.|Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Cao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jiajun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Physics Experiment Teaching Center, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Zhongping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hangxun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tongqing
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guoqiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China. zhangxp@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xuepeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA.
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Demas
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA.
authors.forename: Carl O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Trindle
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, P.R. China. gzhang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Guoqing
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5796-8547
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: charge transfer; fluorescence; naphthalimides; organic dyes; phosphorescence