Near-infrared phosphorescence: materials and applications

Room-temperature phosphorescent materials that emit light in the visible (red, green, and blue; from 400 to 700 nm) have been a major focus of research and development during the past decades, due to their applications in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), light-emitting electrochemical cells, photovoltaic cells, chemical sensors, and bio-imaging. In recent years, near-infrared (NIR) phosphorescence beyond the visible region (700-2500 nm) has emerged as a new, promising, and challenging research field with potential applications toward NIR OLEDs, telecommunications, night vision-readable displays. Moreover, NIR phosphorescence holds promise for in vivo imaging, because cells and tissues exhibit little…