New Wine in Old Bottles: Prolonging Room-Temperature Phosphorescence of Crown Ethers by Supramolecular Interactions

作者：Wei, Peifa; Zhang, Xuepeng; Liu, Junkai; Shan, Guo-Gang; Zhang, Haoke; Qi, Ji; Zhao, Weijun; Sung, Herman H. -Y.; Williams, Ian D.; Lam, Jacky W. Y.; Tang, Ben Zhong^*

来源：Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, 2020, 59(24): 9293-9298.

DOI：10.1002/anie.201912155

• crown ethers
• host-guest chemistry
• macrocycle
• room-temperature phosphorescence
• supramolecular interaction

Supramolecular macrocyclic hosts have long been used in smart materials. However, their triplet emission and regulation at crystal level is rarely studied. Herein, ultralong and universal room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) is reported for traditional crown ethers. A supramolecular strategy involving chain length adjustment and morphological locking through complexation with K+ was explored as a general method to tune the phosphorescence lifetime in the solid state. A maximum 10-fold increase of lifetime after complex formation accompanied with by invisible to visible phosphorescence was achieved. A deep encryption based on this activated RTP strategy was also facilely fabricated. This work thus opens a new world for supramolecular macrocycles and their intrinsic guest responsiveness offers a new avenue for versatile smart luminescent materials.

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