Emergence of Aggregation Induced Emission (AIE), Room-Temperature Phosphorescence (RTP), and Multistimuli Response from a Single Organic Luminogen by Directed Structural Modification

Abstract

Multifunctional organic luminogens exhibiting simultaneous aggregation induced emission (AIE), room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP), and mechanochromism have recently attracted considerable attention owing to their potential applications in optoelectronics and bioimaging. However, a comprehensive correlation among these three distinguished properties is yet to be unveiled, which will help to decipher defined methodologies to design future generation multifunctional organic materials. Herein, we have demonstrated a route to obtain a multifunctional organic luminogen, starting from an ACQphore (TPANDI) by simple structural engineering. We have shown that a slight reduction in length of the planar acceptor moieties can effectively inhibit the undesirable π–π stacking interaction between molecules in the condensed state and thereby cause an ACQ to AIE type transformation from TPANDI to TPANMI and TPAPMI. Both TPANMI and TPAPMI exhibit RTP properties (even in ambient condition) because of the presence of a reasonably low singlet–triplet energy gap (ΔEST). In our study, these two luminogens were found to be mechano-inactive. Interestingly, an insertion of cyano-ethylene group and benzene linker in between the triphenylamine and phthalimide moieties introduced another luminogen TPACNPMI, which can simultaneously exhibit AIE, RTP, and mechanochromic properties.