Professor ZOU Bo from the State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, College of Physics, Jilin University (JLU), along with Associate Professor YAO Dong from JLU’s State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, and Professor ZHAO Ruiyang from Qingdao University of Science and Technology, achieved pressure-induced luminescence (PIE) in organic materials for the first time.

Their results, Lighting Up Nonemissive Azobenzene Derivatives By Pressure, were published in J. Am. Chem. Soc on Sept 15.

The article’s first author is HU Heshu, a doctoral student at JLU’s State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials. ZOU Bo, YAO Dong, and ZHAO Ruiyang are the corresponding authors.

According to the article, organic luminescent materials have always been the focus of materials research. Improving solid-state fluorescence efficiency is a major scientific issue in the study of organic luminescent materials.

In this work, the researchers proposed combining high-pressure and para-modification and, for the first time, achieved PIE of organic materials from scratch in azobenzene derivatives. In addition, they achieved PIE in Cz-Azo-Cz, verifying the potential universality of the high-pressure and para-substitution synergistic strategy.

This work marked a significant breakthrough in PIE research in organic materials, demonstrating the enormous potential of high pressure as a new technological method in crystalline photoisomerization research.