3. PTM-Based Luminescent Organic Radicals
In 1970, Ballester et al. synthesized perchlorotrityl radical (PTM), which was the first stable triarylmethyl radical to achieve room-temperature luminescence, and it could exist in the environment for decades
[107]. The unique stability of PTM came from the shielding effect of the ortho-position chlorine atoms of the three benzene rings on the central carbon, and the steric hindrance effect limited the formation of any form of dimers of PTM
[108]. At room temperature, PTM could exhibit a faint orange-red light emission at 605 nm in a non-polar solvent, but the fluorescence quantum efficiency (QE) of PTM was very low. In cyclohexane, its photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE) was only 0.015, and it would reduce two chlorines under light irradiation (
Figure 5)
[109].
Figure 5. PTM formed rings under light irradiation.
Due to its low fluorescence quantum yield, PTM was not as attractive until Lambert et al. used the Suzuki reaction to replace one para-position Cl of the benzene rings of PTM with Br (
Figure 6a) in 2004
[110]. Later, they introduced a triphenylamine structure on PTM, and modified different electron-withdrawing groups on the triphenylamine part to obtain a series of luminous PTM derivatives (
Figure 6b)
[111][112]. Their emission wavelengths were between 600 nm and 900 nm. Additionally, their PLQE showed an increasing trend with a shorter wavelength, with a maximum of 0.37, which was nearly 25 times higher than that of unmodified PTM, but it was still much lower in polar solvents. These PTM derivatives significantly reduced the electron transfer rate of organic radicals (
Figure 6c), which improved the fluorescence efficiency of organic radicals. Additionally, it was also proposed that donor-acceptor (D-A)-type PTMs were mixed-valence compounds (
Figure 6d)
[111], and the strong electron hybridization of the donor-acceptor could change its luminescence characteristics, local excitation (LE) state, and charge transfer (CT) state (
Figure 6e)
[113]. On this basis, in 2013, Veciana et al. connected a tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) unit to a PTM unit and obtained a stable dimer radical of the binary group (
Figure 6f)
[114].
Figure 6. (
a) Synthesis of Bromo-PTM. (
b) Structure of PTM-TPA and its derivatives. (
c) Fluorescence emission process of PTM derivatives. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[111]. Copyright 2009, Copyright The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. (
d) Conceptual diagram of proposed donor-acceptor type PTM. (
e) Schematic diagram of the potential energy surfaces of the ground state (GS), CT state, and LE state of the radical. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[113]. Copyright 2020, Copyright Journal of the American Chemical Society. (
f) The intramolecular electron transfer process between TTF unit and PTM unit. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[114]. Copyright 2013, Copyright Journal of the American Chemical Society.
In 2018, Li’s group combined triphenylamine (TPA) and different site-substituted carbazoles (PCz and 3PCz) with PTM to synthesize three different PTM-like radicals, PTM-PCz, PTM-3PCz, and PTM-TPA (
Figure 7a)
[88]. It was found that the introduction of electron-donating triphenylamine (TPA) and carbazole derivatives (PCz and 3PCz) at different positions could not only significantly increase the PLQE of PTM-like radicals in non-polar solutions, but also greatly improved the light stability of these radicals. As shown in
Figure 7b, compared with PTM, the PLQE of these radicals in cyclohexane increased 44 times, 57 times, and 26 times, respectively, and the half-life increased 51 times, 185 times, and 6808 times, respectively. At the same time, their UV–vis absorptions and fluorescence spectra showed redshifts to different degrees compared with PTM (absorption peak shifted from 566 nm to 680 nm, and emission peak shifted from 604 nm to 767 nm) (
Figure 7c). It was also found that different solvents had different influence trends on their fluorescence spectra. As shown in
Figure 7d, the fluorescence emission of substituted PTM increased with the increase in solvent polarity, accompanied by an obvious redshift, while the fluorescence emission of unsubstituted PTM had little effect on solvents of different polarities. Additionally, the PLQE of substituted PTM decreased sharply as the polarity of the solvent increased, due to the charge transfer phenomenon between the electron donor of the carbazole derivative/triphenylamine and the electron acceptor of the PTM unit.
Figure 7. PTM derivatives: (
a) molecular structures, (
b) half-life, (
c) UV–vis absorptions, (
d) fluorescence emissions (excitation at 380 nm). Reprinted with permission from ref.
[88]. Copyright 2018, Copyright Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
Later in 2019, Li’s group introduced 9-(naphthalene-2-yl)-9H-carbazole (NCz) and 1,3-di(9Hcarbazol-9-yl) benzene (PDCz) into PTM, and obtained PTM-3NCz and PTM-PDCz with deep red/near infrared (NIR) emission peaks at about 700 nm (
Figure 8a)
[89]. Their photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) reached 54% and 15%, they exhibited strong photochemical stability, and their half-life could reach several months under pulsed ultraviolet laser irradiation. The OLED device obtained by treating the emitter with PTM-3NCz via spin coating had a maximum EQE of 5.3%, which was very high for pure organic deep-red/near-infrared (NIR) emitters (
Figure 8b,c).
Figure 8. (
a) Chemical structures of PTM-3NCz and PTM-PDCz. (
b) Schematic structure of PTM-3NCz-based OLEDs. (
c) EQE of the OLED device as a function of current density; inset: the full electroluminescence spectrum at 12 V. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[89]. Copyright 2019, Copyright Nature Materials.
In 2020, Perepichka et al. synthesized a white crystal of tris(iodoperchlorophenyl) methane (3I-PTM
H) with a radical concentration of 4%. As shown in
Figure 9a,b, the white crystal emitted red light under the off-white solid light at room temperature, and its PLQY was as high as 91%. Additionally, the immobilized iodinated radical showed excellent light stability (half-life of more than one year) (
Figure 9c) and a relatively long luminescence lifetime (69 ns) (
Figure 9d)
[90].
Figure 9. (
a) The high PLQY of 3I-PTM
H doped with 4% 3I-PTM
R. (
b) Photographs of 3I-PTM
R@3I-PTM
H before and after UV irradiation. (
c) Half-life and (
d) luminescence lifetime of 3I-PTM
R@3I-PTM
H. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[90]. Copyright 2020, Copyright Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
4. TTM-Based Luminescent Organic Radicals
In 1987, Armet et al. synthesized a triarylmethyl radical with fewer chlorine atoms—TTM (
Figure 10)
[115]. Compared with PTM-based triarylmethyl radicals, TTM-based triarylmethyl radicals had fewer halogen atoms on the benzene ring, which made their steric hindrance smaller, and the modification simpler. Additionally, their light-emitting color was slightly blue-shifted compared with PTM (orange-yellow at 562 nm). However, like PTM, the PLQE of TTM was also very low (only 0.008 in cyclohexane solution), and it was unstable under light irradiation
[91].
Figure 10. Structure of TTM.
In 1994, Julia et al. reported a series of breakthrough research results on the synthesis of TTM derivatives, which effectively adjusted the luminescence properties of TTM-based triarylmethyl radicals
[116][117][118]. In 2006, they connected the electron-donating carbazole group to TTM through carbon–nitrogen coupling and successfully obtained a triarylmethyl radical (TTM-1Cz) emitting strong red light (
Figure 11a)
[119]. The PLQE of the radical in cyclohexane reached 53%, which was approximately 18 times higher than that of substituted TTM. Later, they introduced a variety of carbazole derivatives and indole groups, and obtained a series of TTM derivatives with higher PLQE (
Figure 11b).
Figure 11. (a) TTM conversion to TTM-1Cz. (b) Molecular structures of carbazole and indole derivatives of TTM.
It is worth noting that in 2015, Li’s group used TTM-1Cz-doped film as the light-emitting layer, and successfully fabricated a deep red OLED device based on triarylmethyl radicals for the first time. The EQE of the device reached 2.4%, achieving a breakthrough on a new path to the 25% upper limit of OLED’s IQE (
Figure 12a)
[46]. Later, they continued to optimize the structure of this OLED device, changed the proportion of triarylmethyl radicals, and increased the EQE of the device to 4.3% (
Figure 12b)
[92]. It was also found that when TTM-1Cz was doped into its precursor HTTM-1Cz at a ratio of 14%, the ratio of doublet excitons in the device was close to 100%. On this basis, they replaced the carbazole group in TTM-1Cz with several weak electron-donating benzimidazole groups, and obtained an orange-emitting organic radical. Its PLQE had increased dozens of times compared with the unsubstituted TTM. Additionally, it was then applied to obtain orange OLED with EQE as high as 5.4%, which expanded the light color of OLED based on triarylmethyl radicals (
Figure 12c)
[93].
Figure 12. (
a) 5% TTM-1Cz-doped OLED device. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[46]. Copyright 2015, Copyright Angewandte Chemie International Edition. (
b) The optimized OLED energy level diagram and its material molecular structure. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[92]. Copyright 2016, Copyright ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. (
c) Synthesis of TTM-2Bi and TTM-3Bi, and photochemical stability of 1: TTM; 2: TTM-2Bi; 3: TTM-3Bi. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[93]. Copyright 2017, Copyright Chemistry of Materials.
Then, in 2018, Li’s group selected carbazoles with different N positions to modify TTM and obtained four stable triarylmethyl radicals, αPyID-TTM, βPyID-TTM, γPyID-TTM, and δPyID-TTM
[94], which exhibited red light emissions (
Figure 13). Different from most organic radicals, these radicals have extremely high luminous efficiency in different polar solvents. For example, in chloroform, the luminous efficiency is 91%, 89%, 32%, and 99%, respectively, which is 12~38 times higher than TTM (PLQE = 2.6%) and 6~20 times higher than TTM-1Cz (PLQE = 5%). The OLED devices obtained by these organic radicals all had high EQE, and the βPyID-TTM device had a maximum EQE of 12.2%, which was a relatively high level in pure red OLED devices, due to the change in the donor-acceptor structural motif
[120]. At the same time, they synthesized two disubstituted radicals, biscarbazoline-substituted TTM, 2αPyID-TTM and 2δPyID-TTM, which also realized excellent luminescence properties and better thermal and electrochemical stability. Additionally, because 2αPyID-TTM and 2δPyID-TTM had more protonation sites, they exhibited better proton response characteristics than single-substituted radicals
[95].
Figure 13. Molecular structures of TTM-based organic radicals modified with carbazoline at different N positions. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[120]. Copyright 2021, Copyright Journal of Materials Chemistry C.
In the same year, Li’s group modified the carbazole group in TTM-1Cz to 4-azacarbazole and prepared a red OLED with an EQE of 10.6% (
Figure 14a)
[121]. They also modified the polycarbazole substituents at different substitution positions and the strong electron-donating group triphenylamine (TPA) on TTM to obtain the infrared-emitting radical TTM-PCz (cyclohexane 663 nm), TTM-3PCz (cyclohexane 664 nm), and TTM-TPA (cyclohexane 728 nm) (
Figure 14b)
[88]. The PLQEs of these radicals in cyclohexane were 0.04, 0.29, and 0.23, respectively. Additionally, all the three radicals had super light stability, which could be comparable to closed-shell molecules. Additionally, Duan et al. prepared an OLED-conductive film by doping 10% TTM-1Cz into HTA-CN, which increased the conductivity hundreds of times (
Figure 14c)
[122].
Figure 14. (
a) TTM-DACz fabricated high-efficiency red-light emission OLED devices. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[121]. Copyright 2018, Copyright The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. (
b) The structures of TTM-PCz, TTM-3PCz, and TTM-TPA. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[88]. Copyright 2018, Copyright Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. (
c) OLED-conductive films prepared by doping 10% TTM-1Cz into HTA-CN. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[122]. Copyright 2018, Copyright ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
In 2019, Li’s group modified a polystyrene backbone with CzBTM and obtained a light-emitting radical polymer, PS-CzTTM, which was the first synthesis of light-emitting triarylmethyl polymers (
Figure 15a)
[123]. PS-CzTTM had paramagnetism and good thermal properties. Additionally, the solid state could exhibit bright deep red light emissions when exposed to ultraviolet light at room temperature. The films prepared by PS-CzTTM in cyclohexane solution or via spin coating had high luminescence quantum yields, with PLQEs of 37.5% and 24.4%, respectively. Additionally, its light stability was 300 times higher than that of TTM (
Figure 15b). In the same year, they modified 9-(naphthalene-2-yl)-9H-carbazole (NCz) and phenyl-phenothiazine (PPTA) onto TTM and obtained TTM-3NCz and TTM-PPTA with high stability
[89], whose PLQEs were 0.29 and 0.02, respectively, and the PLQE of TTM-3NCz was 36 times higher than that of TTM.
Figure 15. (
a) Solid-state luminescent radical polymer PS-CzTTM. (
b) Half-life of TTM and PS-CzTTM. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[123]. Copyright 2019, Copyright Materials Horizons.
In 2021, Kuehne et al. used a special synthesis method to partially or fully bromine the chlorine in TTM and synthesized new triarylmethyl radicals, TBr3Cl6M, TBr6Cl3M, and TTBrM (
Figure 16)
[96]. They provided new ideas for the study of the properties of TTM-based organic radicals and the design of more complex triarylmethyl open-shell molecules, which was conductive to the development of small organic open-shell molecules in the field of optoelectronics.
Figure 16. Synthetic route for various halide TTM derivatives. Reprinted with permission from ref.
[96]. Copyright 2021, Copyright RSC Advances.
In 2021, Zhou et al. replaced the carbazole in TTM-Cz with diphenylamine (DPA), dibenzidine (DBPA), and difluorenamine (DFA) to obtain a series of new diarylamines substituted TTM derivatives, TTM-DPA, TTM-DBPA, and TTM-DFA
[97]. The maximum photoluminescence wavelengths of these triarylmethyl radicals were 705 nm, 748 nm, and 809 nm, due to the introduction of stronger electron-donating groups. Additionally, their PLQEs were 65%, 28%, and 5%, while their half-lives were 15 times, 45 times, and 73 times higher than those of TTM-Cz. These works have greatly enriched the development of stable TTM-based triarylmethyl radicals and provided more new ideas for their application research in the OLED field.