Color-Tunable Dual-Mode Organic Afterglow for White-Light Emission and Information Encryption Based on Carbazole Doping

Abstract

Dual-mode emission materials, combining phosphorescence and delayed fluorescence, offer promising opportunities for white-light afterglow. However, the delayed fluorescence lifetime is usually significantly shorter than that of phosphorescence, limiting the duration of white-light emission. In this study, a carbazole-based host–guest system that can be activated by both ultraviolet (UV) and visible light is reported to achieve balanced phosphorescence and delayed fluorescence, resulting in a long-lived white-light afterglow. Our study demonstrated the critical role of a charge transfer state in the afterglow mechanism, where the charge separation and recombination process directly determined the lifetime of afterglow. Simultaneously, an efficient reversed intersystem crossing process was obtained between the singlet and triplet charge transfer states, which facilitating the delayed fluorescence properties of host–guest system. As a result, delayed fluorescence lifetime was successfully prolonged to approach that of phosphorescence. This work presents a delayed fluorescence lifetime improvement strategy via doping method to realize durable white-light afterglow.