Mechanophotonic aspects of a room temperature phosphorescent flexible organic microcrystal

A combination of flexibility and room temperature phosphorescence (RTPR) in organic crystals is in high demand due to various applications from bio-medical to organic photonic circuit technologies. However, flexible RTPR crystals are scarce. We report the design and synthesis of novel flexible microcrystals of (Z)-3-(4-(10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)phenyl)-2-(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)acrylonitrile (PTX-2CF3), exhibiting a phosphorescence lifetime of 658 μs and λmax ≈ 530 nm. The structural basis for the mechanical flexibility and mechanophotonic aspects of the PTX-2CF3 crystals is studied in detail.