Purely Organic Room-Temperature Phosphorescent Materials for Electrochemiluminescence.

Purely organic room-temperature phosphorescent (RTP) materials show great potential for enabling highly efficient electrochemiluminescence (ECL). However, current research has predominantly focused on photoluminescence (PL), electroluminescence (EL), mechanoluminescence (ML), and x-ray radioluminescence (RL), their ECL behavior has not been investigated. In this study, we report a series of purely organic RTP materials (DPy, FPy, and TPy), constructed via a donor-acceptor (D-A) skeleton and heavy atom effect, with TPy demonstrating the highest phosphorescence quantum yield of 75.7%. Importantly, ECL emission from DPy, FPy, and TPy particles is successfully achieved. Mechanistic studies reveal that RTP-based ECL operates via a dual-pathway process involving both a low oxidation potential pathway and the annihilation reaction pathway. These findings significantly broaden the applicability of RTP materials, thereby advancing the development of ECL systems.