Tunable Emission from Triplet Fusion Upconversion in Diketopyrrolopyrroles

Optical upconversion based on triplet fusion (TF), also known as triplet–triplet annihilation, is a process by which two or more low-energy photons are converted to one higher energy photon. This process requires two components, a sensitizer which absorbs the incident low-energy photons and an annihilator which emits the higher energy photons. While much attention has been given to the investigation of new types of sensitizers, very little work has been done on the exploration of new annihilators. In this work, we show that the singlet energy of diketopyrrolopyrroles (DPPs) can be altered by modifying the pendant aryl substituents to the core. This allows us to meet the energetic requirements necessary for TF upconversion and demonstrates DPPs as a new class of annihilator molecules. Using this new DPP platform, the output wavelength from upconversion can easily be tuned, which will greatly diversify the number of applications of DPPs in upconversion technologies.