Citation: Juanjuan Wang, Yangxia Han, Qixia Guan, Jia Chen, Hongdeng Qiu. Photochromic ionic self-assembled ionic-bonded organic crystals: Blue-shifted and enhanced luminescence[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(4): 111732. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111732 shu

Photochromic ionic self-assembled ionic-bonded organic crystals: Blue-shifted and enhanced luminescence

Juanjuan Wang ^a ,
Yangxia Han ^a ,
Qixia Guan ^a ,
Jia Chen ^{a, *,} ,
Hongdeng Qiu ^{a, b, *,}

a.
CAS Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources and Key Laboratory for Natural Medicine of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
b.
Key Laboratory of Rare Earths, Ganjiang Innovation Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ganzhou 341000, China

jiachen@licp.cas.cn

hdqiu@licp.cas.cn

Received Date: 24 January 2025
Revised Date: 3 July 2025
Accepted Date: 15 August 2025
Available Online: 16 August 2025

Figures(4)

Materials with blue-shifted and enhanced emission exhibit extensive applications in information encryption, solar ultraviolet sensing and ink-free printing, however, preparing blue-shifted and enhanced emission from photo-responsive material remains a significant challenge. Herein, we designed and synthesized successfully the photo-responsive ionic-bonded organic crystals (IOC) using tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-based multidentate imidazolium salt and sulfonic acid. Impressively, the discernible response of IOC to UV light is evidenced by a blue shift and an enhancement in dilute solution. Specifically, this has resulted in a significant increase in the absolute quantum yield, from 7.0% to 41.3%. This remarkable efficiency can be attributed to the cooperative effect that reduces non-radiative processes, the restriction of intermolecular motions (RIM) and the modulation of charge transfer (CT) behavior. This work first reports blue-shifted and enhanced emission from ionic crystal, providing a new strategy to achieve photochromic materials.
- Ionic-bonded organic crystals,
- Blue-shifted,
- Enhanced luminescence,
- Ionic self-assembly,
- Charge transfer
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