Supramolecular self-sorting assembly enabling liquid-phase ultralong organic phosphorescence with multicolor fluorescence for dual-modality detection

Organic room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials have garnered significant interest owing to their unique photophysical properties and promising applications, whereas most of them are sensitive to solvents. Enhancing their resistance to solvents is attractive but suffers from severe deactivation of triplet excitons especially in polar solvents. Herein, we propose a self-sorting co-assembly strategy to achieve ultralong liquid-phase RTP with multicolor fluorescence. The fluorophores containing N-heteroatoms and hydrogen bonding acceptors/donors co-assemble with melamine (MA) and cyanuric acid (CA) to offer ultralong liquid-phase RTP emission with a lifetime of up to 544 ms in water. In addition, the organic phosphors can be employed as chelating ligands to coordinate lanthanide ions, endowing liquid-phase RTP with multicolor fluorescence and remaining excellent resistance to various polar and nonpolar solvents. Relying on robust liquid-phase RTP emission and intense multicolor fluorescence, dual-modality visual detection of leakage is demonstrated as a proof-of-concept. This study provides a reliable avenue for realizing ultralong liquid-phase RTP with multicolor fluorescence to meet versatile uses.