Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Organic Core/Multi-Shell Microwires for Trichromatic White-Light Sources

Adv Mater. 2021 Oct;33(40):e2102719. doi: 10.1002/adma.202102719. Epub 2021 Aug 20.

Abstract

White-light-emissive organic micro/nanostructures hold exotic potential applications in full-color displays, on-chip wavelength-division multiplexing, and backlights of portable display devices, but are rarely realized in organic core/shell heterostructures. Herein, through regulating the noncovalent interactions between organic semiconductor molecules, a hierarchical self-assembly approach of horizontal epitaxial-growth is demonstrated for the fine synthesis of organic core/mono-shell microwires with multicolor emission (red-green, red-blue, and green-blue) and especially organic core/double-shell microwires with radial red-green-blue (RGB) emission, whose components are dibenzo[g,p]chrysene (DgpC)-based charge-transfer (CT) complexes. In fact, the desired lattice mismatching (≈2%) and the excellent structure compatibility of these CT complexes facilitate the epitaxial-growth process for the facile synthesis of organic core/shell microwires. With the RGB-emissive substructures, these core/double-shell organic microwires are microscale white-light sources (CIE [0.34, 0.36]). Besides, the white-emissive core/double-shell microwires demonstrate the fascinating full-spectrum light transportation from 400 to 700 nm. This work indeed opens up a novel avenue for the accurate construction of organic core/shell heterostructures, which provides an attractive platform for the organic integrated optoelectronics.

Keywords: core/shell structures; energy transfer; epitaxial growth; organic cocrystals; solid-state lighting sources.