Aggregation‐induced conversion from TADF to phosphorescence of gold(I) complexes with millisecond lifetimes

• Published in: Aggregate (Hoboken) Vol. 4; no. 2
• Main Authors: Wang, Xiao‐Yan, Gong, Junyi, Zou, Hang, Liu, Sheng Hua, Zhang, Jing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Guangzhou John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.04.2023; Wiley
• Subjects: Aggregates; aggregation‐induced conversion; carbazole gold(I) complexes; Gold; Information storage; Lifetime; long‐lived luminescence; millisecond lifetime; Potassium; Single crystals; Solvents
• ISSN: 2692-4560; 2766-8541; 2692-4560
• DOI: 10.1002/agt2.252

Long‐lived luminescent materials possess wide application prospects in various areas, but their constructions still face a huge challenge, especially the achievement in solution. Manipulating aggregate is an effective method to attain intriguing luminescence, thus it is expected to build long‐lived materials in solution. In this work, a series of new gold(I) complexes were developed by employing unique carbazole and phosphine as the ligands, and these resulting systems exhibited rare long lifetimes of milliseconds in the aggregate state. It was well unveiled that these complexes emitted blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) with the lifetimes of several microseconds in dilute solution; while orange‐red phosphorescence with much longer lifetimes of several milliseconds were achieved in the aggregate state. To our knowledge, this is the first implementation of aggregation‐induced conversion from TADF to phosphorescence. Based on their excellent luminescent properties, we successfully applied these complexes in cell imaging and inhibition of cancer cells. Long‐lived luminescent materials have attracted considerable attention from researchers. However, how to build long‐lived materials in solution still remains a challenge. In this work, a new class of gold(I) complexes have been designed and showed unprecedented aggregation‐induced conversion from TADF to phosphorescence. Their long millisecond lifetime in aggregate also made them excellent candidates in cell imaging.