Room-Temperature Phosphorescent Organic-Doped Inorganic Frameworks Showing Wide-Range and Multicolor Long-Persistent Luminescence

Long-persistent luminescence based on purely inorganic and/or organic compounds has recently attracted much attention in a wide variety of fields including illumination, biological imaging, and information safety. However, simultaneously tuning the static and dynamic afterglow performance still presents a challenge. In this work, we put forward a new route of organic-doped inorganic framework to achieve wide-range and multicolor ultralong room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP). Through a facile hydrothermal method, phosphor (tetrafluoroterephthalic acid (TFTPA)) into the CdCO3 (or Zn-2(OH)(2)CO3) host matrix exhibits an excitation-dependent colorful RTP due to the formation of diverse molecular aggregations with multicentral luminescence. The RTP lifetime of the doped organic/inorganic hybrids is greatly enhanced (313 times) compared to the pristine TFTPA. The high RTP quantum yield (43.9%) and good stability guarantee their easy visualization in both ambient and extreme conditions (such as acidic/basic solutions and an oxygen environment). Further codoped inorganic ions (Mn2+ and Pb2+) afford the hybrid materials with a novel time-resolved tunable afterglow emission, and the excitation-dependent RTP color is highly adjustable from dark blue to red, covering nearly the whole visible spectrum and outperforming the current state-of-the-art RTP materials. Therefore, this work not only describes a combined codoping and multicentral strategy to obtain statically and dynamically tunable long-persistent luminescence but also provides great opportunity for the use of organic-inorganic hybrid materials in multilevel anticounterfeiting and multicolor display applications.

Automated summary

This work introduces a new approach of organic-doped inorganic framework to achieve wide-range and multicolor ultralong room-temperature phosphorescence, demonstrating the enhancement of RTP lifetime and quantum yield. Further codoping with inorganic ions enables tunable afterglow emission covering nearly the whole visible spectrum, making it promising for various applications.