This research demonstrates multistate emission behavior in a single donor–acceptor molecule, highlighting its thermally responsive capabilities for OLED applications.
Organic luminescent materials with multistate responsiveness to external stimuli are of growing interest for smart sensing, information encryption, and next-generation optoelectronic devices. However, achieving thermally tunable emission involving multiple excited-state mechanisms within a single molecule remains highly challenging. Here, we report a rationally designed donor–acceptor molecule, PTZT, that integrates aggregation-induced emission (AIE), thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), and room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) into one solid-state system. By combining a rigid electron-deficient triazine acceptor with a twisted donor and fine-tuned intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), PTZT exhibits both a small singlet–triplet energy gap (ΔES-T) and n−π* character, enabling a thermally driven interplay between fluorescence, delayed fluorescence, and phosphorescence. Remarkably, PTZT shows a nonmonotonic, three-stage temperature-dependent luminescence evolution, resulting from the dynamic switching of dominant excited-state pathways. Comprehensive photophysical studies and exciton kinetics modeling reveal the underlying mechanism of this triple-emission behavior. Furthermore, nondoped OLEDs based on PTZT demonstrate favorable electroluminescent performance, underscoring its potential for practical application. This work offers a new molecular strategy for constructing multiresponsive organic emitters with programmable thermal behaviors.
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Xu et al. (2025) studied this question.
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