Fast and Tunable Phosphorescence from Organic Ionic Crystals

Crystalline diphosphonium iodides [MeR₂P-spacer-R₂Me]I with phenylene ( 1 , 2 ), naphthalene ( 3 , 4 ), biphenyl ( 5 ) and anthracene ( 6 ) as aromatic spacers, are photoemissive under ambient conditions. The emission colors (λ_em values from 550 to 880 nm) and intensities (Φ_em reaching 0.75) are defined by the composition and substitution geometry of the central conjugated chromophore motif, and the anion-π interactions. Time-resolved and variable-temperature luminescence studies suggest phosphorescence for all the titled compounds, which demonstrate observed lifetimes of 0.46–92.23 μs at 297 K. Radiative rate constants k_r as high as 2.8×10⁵ s⁻¹ deduced for salts 1 – 3 were assigned to strong spin-orbit coupling enhanced by an external heavy atom effect arising from the anion-π charge-transfer character of the triplet excited state. These rates of anomalously fast metal-free phosphorescence are comparable to those of transition metal complexes and organic luminophores that utilize triplet excitons via a thermally activated delayed fluorescence mechanism, making such ionic luminophores a new paradigm for the design of photofunctional and responsive molecular materials.