Regulating Phosphorescence Lifetime of Organic Cocrystals by Alkyl Engineering

Phosphorescent cocrystal is one of the emerging room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials. However, it remains a great challenge to understand the relationship between the phosphorescent properties and molecular aggregation. Herein, we prepared a series of organic cocrystals with RTP features composed of different alkyl chain lengths. It is worth noting that the phosphorescent lifetime varied by the different lengths of alkyl chains. For melamine–succinic acid cocrystal, the phosphorescence lifetime can reach up to 512 ms. From the single-crystal analysis, the longer lifetime was mainly attributed to the shorter distance of molecular stacking between phosphorescent chromophores resulting in smaller free volume. This study not only provides a simple method to prepare RTP materials but also explores the relationship between phosphorescent properties and molecular stacking in organic phosphorescent cocrystals.