Electric-triggered coordination disassembly for red-shifted phosphorescence and electrochromic light-emitting diodes

Aluminum/hypoxanthine phosphorescent materials (Al/HX-PMs) exhibit enhanced RTP via coordination rigidity. • The RTP lifetime and intensity of Al/HX-PMs are 2.89 and 5.18 times those of HX, respectively. • Pronounced electrophosphorochromism is observed under applied current via cleavage of Al 3+ –HX coordination bonds. Metal-organic electrophosphorochromic materials are crucial for advancing the next generation of optoelectronic technology, but developing new strategies to achieve low-cost and high-efficiency electrophosphorochromism still faces challenges. Herein, we report a metal–organic phosphorescent material (Al/HX-PMs) synthesized from low-cost hypoxanthine (HX) and aluminum sulfate (Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 ). Owing to the coordination rigidity, Al/HX-PMs exhibit significantly enhanced room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) performance, with the lifetime prolonged by 2.89 times (from 148.77 ms to 429.75 ms) and the RTP intensity enhanced by up to 5.18 times compared to pure HX. Remarkably, Al/HX-PMs display pronounced electrophosphorochromism, as the emission progressively red-shifts from 503 nm to 592 nm with increasing current. This spectral evolution is attributed to the electrically triggered cleavage of coordination bonds, which induces dissociation into molecular constituents and enables direct structural control over luminescence. This work not only offers a new design strategy for low-cost electrically responsive phosphorescent materials, but also presents a feasible route toward fabricating correlated color temperature tunable light-emitting diodes. A metal–organic phosphorescent material (Al/HX-PMs) is synthesized from low-cost hypoxanthine and aluminum sulfate, exhibiting enhanced room-temperature phosphorescence (2.89-fold prolonged lifetime and 5.18-fold increased intensity) and pronounced electrophosphorochromism (red-shift from 503 nm to 592 nm with increasing current), which is attributed to the electrically triggered cleavage of coordination bonds. Download: Download high-res image (176KB) Download: Download full-size image