Advanced charge transfer technology for highly efficient and long-lived TADF-type organic afterglow with near-infrared light-excitable property

Heavy atom effects and n-π*transitions have been frequently reported to enhance room-temperature organic phosphorescence efficiency but lead to shortage of phosphorescence lifetimes.Unlike these reported studies,we conceive the incorporation of advanced charge transfer(CT)technology to boost room-temperature organic afterglow efficiency and simultaneously maintain afterglow lifetimes.Here we design difluoroboronβ-diketonate(BF2bdk)CT compounds with moderate singlet-triplet splitting energy(ΔEST)of around 0.4 e V,and relatively large spin-orbit coupling matrix elements(SOCME(S_(1)-T_(1)),1–10 cm^(-1))to achieve efficient intersystem crossing(ISC)and moderate rates of reverse intersystem crossing(kRISC,1–10 s^(-1)).The advanced CT technology,which includes multiple electron-donating groups and orthogonal donor-acceptor arrangement,have been found to narrowΔESTand enhance both ISC and RISC.Meanwhile,the organic matrices suppress nonradiative decay of BF2bdk’s T1states by their rigid microenvironment.Consequently,thermally activated delayed fluorescence(TADF)-type organic afterglow materials can be achieved with afterglow efficiency up to 83.0%,long lifetimes of 433 ms,excellent processablility,as well as advanced anti-counterfeiting and information encryption.Furthermore,with the aid of up-conversion materials and through radiative energy transfer,TADF-type afterglow materials with aqueous dispersity and near-infrared light-excitable property have been achieved,which paves the way for biomedical applications.