Blue solid-state luminescent tetraphenylethene–organophosphorus dyads with aggregation-induced emission characteristics

Three novel tetraphenylethene–organophosphorus dyads – (6-oxido-6 H -dibenz[c,e][1,2]oxaphosphorin-6-yl)[4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl] methanol, diphenyl {hydroxy[4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl]methyl} phosphine oxide, and di(3,5-dimethylphenyl){hydroxy[4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl] methyl} phosphine oxide – were synthesised and characterised by 1 H, 13 C, and 31 P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. The photoluminescence properties were studied. All three dyads exhibited intense solid-state blue emission peaking at 449–466 nm, and also displayed aggregation-induced emission behaviours. The emission decays of these dyads in the solid state also fitted well with a triexponential model with an average lifetime of 2.65–4.42 ns. The experimental results demonstrated that the luminescent properties are highly dependent on the nature of the organophosphorus groups. The choice of phosphorus-containing components can cause variations in the photoluminescence emission and photoluminescence decays.