Organic Supramolecular Zippers with Ultralong Organic Phosphorescence by a Dexter Energy Transfer Mechanism

Ultralong organic phosphorescence (UOP) materials glow persistently in the dark, which offers new exciting possibilities in the fields of anti-counterfeiting, photoelectric devices and biological imaging. However, the development of single-component UOP materials remains a great challenge. Herein, we develop a single component organic supramolecular zipper system with a lifetime up to 0.77 s. Owing to the introduction of a pyrazole ring into the diphenylsulfone group, the "V" shaped molecules were artfully self-assembled into supramolecular zippers via π-π and C-H⋅⋅⋅π interactions, that is not only of significance in highly efficient generation of triplet excitons but also facilitates a Dexter energy transfer process within supramolecular zippers, that are responsible for alleviating radiative and non-radiative deactivation decay of triplet excitons, to finally boost the UOP. This finding not only gives a new set of guidelines for the design of single-component UOP molecules but also reveals the UOP mechanism from a new perspective.