Crystal-state luminophores have been of great interest in optoelectronics for years, whereas the excited state regulation at the crystal level is still restricted by the lack of control ways. We report that the singlet-triplet emissive property can be profoundly regulated by crystal conformational distortions. Employing fluoro-substituted tetrakis(arylthio)benzene luminophores as prototype, we found that couples of molecular conformations formed during different crystallizations. The deformable carbon-sulphur bond essentially drove the distortion of the molecular conformation and varied the stacking mode, together with diverse non-covalent interactions, leading to the proportional adjustment of the fluorescence and phosphorescence bands. This intrinsic strategy was further applied for solid-state multicolor emissive conversion and mechanoluminescence, probably offering new insights for design of smart crystal luminescent materials.
Keywords: crystal engineering; luminescence; molecular stacking; noncovalent interactions; single-crystal conformation.
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