Pure white light emission from organic molecules using solvent induced selective self-assembly

Organic materials generating pure white light emission have attracted considerable attention in recent times due to their potential applications in lighting and display devices. We have used anthracene carboxylic acid (AnA) and anthracene carbaldehyde (AnC) to generate white light using solvent induced selective self-assembly (SISSA). Mechanistically, SISSA prevents a fast intersystem crossing of the AnC monomer and generates an emissive state from the self-assembled AnC. While AnA emits in the blue region, the self-assembled AnC emits in the greenish yellow region with identical emission intensity. CIE coordinates (0.33, 0.33) of pure white light have been achieved by incorporating orange emitting rhodamine B. More importantly, the pure white light formation has been demonstrated at desired temperatures in both aqueous medium as well as in an agar-agar hydrogel.