Multi-stimuli-responsive aryl-sulfone derivatives with room-temperature phosphorescence and mechanoluminescence properties

Two aryl-sulfone derivatives labeled CzSP and TBCzSP were developed. CzSP shows ultralong room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) with the lifetimes of more than 720 ms and a quantum efficiency of 2.41% while TBCzSP displays RTP with the lifetimes of more than 4.8 μs and a quantum efficiency of 4.91%. Besides, a deep blue mechanoluminescence (ML) is observed when CzSP and TBCzSP are ground or rubbed. According to single crystal and TD-DFT calculations, molecular packing modes and S₁→T_n transition play important roles in RTP and ML properties. In addition, intermolecular charge transfer and dipole moment cause the ML property. The ultralong RTP property indicates that CzSP can be effectively used to visualize printed images (especially for latent fingerprints detection).