Dye encapsulation engineering in a tetraphenylethylene-based MOF for tunable white-light emission

The development of efficient and stable white-light emissive materials is highly desirable in displays and solid-state lighting. Here we present a high-quality white-light emitter based a dual-emitting MOF hybrid, which is achieved by dye encapsulation engineering within a robust Zr-MOF (PCN-128W) containing a highly luminescent tetraphenylethylene-based ligand. The pore confinement effect well isolates the incorporated dye molecules (trans-4-[4-(Dimethylamino)styryl]-1-methylpyridinium iodide (DSM)) and therefore suppress the aggregation caused luminescence quenching. The dye emission is mainly sensitized by PCN-128W host through Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET), and the FRET process is incomplete, thus enabling the hybrid to feature dual emissions upon a single excitation. The emission color of DSM@PCN-128W hybrid can be systematically tuned from blue to white, and to orange by regulating the dye encapsulation content. A broad white-light emission with a considerably high quantum yield (21.2%) is obtained in the case of dye contents of 0.15 wt%. The luminescence of DSM@PCN-128W hybrid is stable in ambient air for over 1 month, and show good resistance to continuous UV light irradiation, owing to the protective MOF Matrix that largely inhibits the UV exposure to dye molecules. What’s more, by combining DSM@PCN-128W with a commercial UV LED chip, we fabricate a white-light emitting prototype device showing CIE chromaticity coordinates of (0.34, 0.33), a CRI of 79.1, and a CCT of 5525 K.