Ultralong organic afterglow from small molecular host-guest materials: state of the art

Yuxin Xiao; Mingyao Shen; Chin-Yiu Chan; Tao Yu; Wei Huang

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01954-3

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Ultralong organic afterglow from small molecular host-guest materials: state of the art

Review

- Ultralong organic afterglow from small molecular host-guest materials: state of the art
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 10, Pages: 2871-2890(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Frontiers Science Center for Flexible Electronics, Xi'an Institute of Flexible Electronics & Xi'an Institute of Biomedical Materials and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
  2.Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo Institute of Northwesterm Polytechnical University, Ningbo 315103, China
  3.Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
  4.Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
  5.Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics & Institute of Advanced Materials Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China
  6.State Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics (LoFE) & Institute of Advanced Materials, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210023, China
- Author bio：
  
  Chin-Yiu Chan (chinychan2@cityu.edu.hk)
  Tao Yu (iamtyu@nwpu.edu.cn)
  Wei Huang (vc@nwpu.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-01954-3
  CLC：
- Received：02 April 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-06-17，
  
  Accepted：04 July 2025，
  
  Published Online：27 August 2025，
  
  Published：31 October 2025
- Accepted：
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Xiao, Y. X. et al. Ultralong organic afterglow from small molecular host-guest materials: state of the art. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 2871-2890 (2025).
DOI：

Xiao, Y. X. et al. Ultralong organic afterglow from small molecular host-guest materials: state of the art. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 2871-2890 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01954-3.

摘要

Abstract

Ultralong organic afterglow materials are being actively explored as attractive candidates for a wide range of applications such as data storage

security inks

emergency lighting

etc.

due to their unique long-lived excited state properties and inherent advantages of low cost

appreciable functionality and ease of preparation. In the last three years

much effort has been devoted to achieving efficient ultralong afterglow from organic small molecules

which possess controllable intermolecular interactions and defined energy levels

making them a good platform to suppress the non-radiative decays

hence stabilizing the excitons for efficient afterglow emissions at room temperature. Nevertheless

there has been a lack of reviews on how efficient ultralong organic afterglow can be systematically achieved from small molecular host-guest materials

which is not conducive to the development of the field. In this review

we have outlined and summarized small-molecule ultralong organic afterglow materials based on different emission mechanisms. We have included emission mechanisms involving ultralong room-temperature phosphorescence (URTP)

ultralong thermally activated delayed fluorescence (UTADF) and organic long persistent luminescence (OLPL)

where the latter two mechanisms have rarely been reported. In addition

challenges and future perspectives are discussed to emphasize the future directions.

关键词

Keywords

references

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