Recent Advances in Organic Room-Temperature Phosphorescence of Heteroatom (B/S/P)-Containing Chromophores

Purely organic room-temperature phosphors, which have received extensive attention as emerging state-of-the-art luminescent materials in various fields, have a longer lifetime than fluorophores. The energy gap law and El-Sayed’s rule provide clear design principles for the development of organic room-temperature phosphorescence. Therefore, the incorporation of heteroatoms (such as sulfur and phosphorus) usually promotes the intersystem crossing rate and increases the ³(π, π*) configuration to realize long lifetimes. Furthermore, boron-containing phosphors not only display excellent phosphorescence properties but also expand El-Sayed’s rule without (n, π*) transitions. This review summarizes recent work on organic phosphorescence of heterocycles with boron, sulfur, and phosphorus heteroatoms and highlights the significance of the guidelines for constructing efficient phosphorescence molecules. This work is instrumental in further diversifying the pool of phosphorescent molecules and developing new and effective design strategies.