Room-temperature long-lived triplet excited states of naphthalenediimides and their applications as organic triplet photosensitizers for photooxidation and triplet-triplet annihilation upconversions.

Naphthalenediimide (NDI) derivatives with 2,6- or 2,3,6,7-tetrabromo or amino substituents were prepared. N,N'-dialkyl-2,6-dibromo NDI (compound 2) and N,N'-dialkyl-2,3,6,7-tetrabromo NDI (compound 4) show phosphorescence emission at 610 or 667 nm, respectively. Phosphorescence was never observed for NDI derivatives. Conversely, N,N'-dialkyl-2,6-dibromo-3,7-diamino NDI (compound 5) shows strong absorption at 526 nm and fluorescence at 551 nm, and no phosphorescence was observed. However, nanosecond time-resolved transient difference absorption spectroscopy confirmed that the triplet excited state of 5 was populated upon photoexcitation. 2,3,6,7-Tetraamino NDI (6) shows fluorescence, and no triplet excited state was populated upon excitation. The compounds were used as singlet oxygen ((1)O(2)) photosensitizers for the photooxidation of 1,5-dihydroxylnaphthalene (DHN). We found that 5 is more efficient than the conventional photosensitizer, such as Ir(ppy)(2)(bpy)[PF(6)]. The compounds were also used as organic triplet photosensitizers for triplet-triplet annihilation based upconversions. An upconversion quantum yield up to 18.5% was observed.