Tunable Blue-Light-Emitting Organic-Inorganic Zinc Halides with Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence and Room-Temperature Phosphorescence.

Hybrid metal halides have received great interests in the field of solid-state lighting technologies due to their diverse structures and excellent emission properties. In this work, we report the synthesis and characterization of four blue-emitting zero-dimensional hybrid metal halides, namely, (2HP) ₂ ZnCl ₂ , (2HP) ₂ ZnBr ₂ , (2TP) ₂ ZnCl ₂ , and (2TP) ₂ ZnBr ₂ (2HP = 2-hydroxypyridine, 2TP = pyridine-2-thiol). By changing the ligands and halides, a remarkable increase in the photoluminescence quantum yield of (2HP) ₂ ZnCl ₂ (44.7%) compared to (2TP) ₂ ZnBr ₂ (1.8%) is realized. The 2HP series features excitation-dependent emission characteristics, whereas the 2TP series does not due to the effect of a different organic ligand. Utilizing time-resolved and temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectroscopies, all four compounds exhibit both thermally activated delayed fluorescence and room-temperature phosphorescence properties. These materials have excellent ambient and thermal stabilities and are solution-processable. Our work shows the importance of carefully incorporating organic ligands with the appropriate inorganic metal center to achieve tunable emission properties.