Ultralong room-temperature phosphorescence of a solid-state supramolecule between phenylmethylpyridinium and cucurbit[6]uril

Long-lived organic room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) has received great attention because of its various potential applications. Herein, we report a persistent RTP of a solid-state supramolecule between a cucurbit[6]uril (CB[6]) host and a heavy-atom-free phenylmethylpyridinium guest. Significantly, the long-lived phosphorescence completely depends on the host–guest complexation, revealing that the non-phosphorescent guest exhibits a 2.62 s ultralong lifetime after being complexed by CB[6] under ambient conditions. The ultralong RTP is because of tight encapsulation of CB[6], which boosts intersystem crossing, suppresses nonradiative relaxation and possibly shields quenchers. Moreover, several phosphorescent complexes possessing different lifetimes are prepared and successfully applied in triple lifetime-encoding for data encryption and anti-counterfeiting. This strategy provides a new insight for realizing purely organic RTP with ultralong lifetime and expands its application in the field of information protection.