Donor–σ–Acceptor Motifs: Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters with Dual Upconversion

A family of organic emitters with a donor–σ–acceptor (D‐σ‐A) motif is presented. Owing to the weakly coupled D‐σ‐A intramolecular charge‐transfer state, a transition from the localized excited triplet state (³LE) and charge‐transfer triplet state (³CT) to the charge‐transfer singlet state (¹CT) occurred with a small activation energy and high photoluminescence quantum efficiency. Two thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) components were identified, one of which has a very short lifetime of 200–400 ns and the other a longer TADF lifetime of the order of microseconds. In particular, the two D‐σ‐A materials presented strong blue emission with TADF properties in toluene. These results will shed light on the molecular design of new TADF emitters with short delayed lifetimes.     

Molecular Design Strategy of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Emitters Using CN‐Substituted Imidazopyrazine as a New Electron‐Accepting Unit

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF)‐based organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) have attracted enormous attention recently due to their capability to replace conventional phosphorescent organic light‐emitting diodes for practical applications. In this work, a newly designed CN‐substituted imidazopyrazine moiety was utilized as an electron‐accepting unit in a TADF emitter. Two TADF emitters, 8‐(3‐cyano‐4‐(9,9‐dimethylacridin‐10(9H)‐yl)phenyl)‐2‐phenylimidazo[1,2‐a]pyrazine‐3‐carbonitrile (Ac‐CNImPyr) and 8‐(3‐cyano‐4‐(10H‐phenoxazin‐10‐yl)phenyl)‐2‐phenylimidazo[1,2‐a]pyrazine‐3‐carbonitrile (PXZ‐CNImPyr), were developed based on the CN‐substituted imidazopyrazine acceptor combined with acridine and phenoxazine donor, respectively. A CN‐substituted phenyl spacer was introduced between the donor and acceptor for a sufficiently small singlet‐triplet energy gap (ΔE_ST) and molecular orbital management. Small ΔE_ST of 0.07 eV was achieved for the phenoxazine donor‐based PXZ‐CNImPyr emitter. As a result, an organic light‐emitting diode based on the PXZ‐CNImPyr emitter exhibited a high external quantum efficiency of up to 12.7 %, which surpassed the EQE limit of common fluorescent emitters. Hence, the CN‐modified imidazopyrazine unit can be introduced as a new acceptor for further modifications to develop efficient TADF‐based OLEDs.     

A Simple and Strong Electron‐Deficient 5,6‐Dicyano[2,1,3]benzothiadiazole‐Cored Donor‐Acceptor‐Donor Compound for Efficient Near Infrared Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence

Despite the success of thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials in steering the next generation of organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), effective near infrared (NIR) TADF emitters are still very rare. Here, we present a simple and extremely high electron‐deficient compound, 5,6‐dicyano[2,1,3]benzothiadiazole (CNBz), as a strong electron‐accepting unit to develop a sufficiently strong donor‐acceptor (D?A) interaction for NIR emission. End‐capping with the electron‐donating triphenylamine (TPA) unit created an effective D?A?D type system, giving rise to an efficient NIR TADF emissive molecule (λ_em=750 nm) with a very small ΔE_ST of 0.06 eV. The electroluminescent device using this NIR TADF emitter exhibited an excellent performance with a high maximum radiance of 10020 mW Sr^?1 m^?2, a maximum EQE of 6.57% and a peak wavelength of 712 nm.     

Molecular Design of Thermally Activated Delayed‐Fluorescent Emitters Using 2,2′‐Bipyrimidine as the Acceptor in Donor–Acceptor Structures

Donor–acceptor–donor (D–A–D)‐type thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters 5,5′‐bis{4‐[9,9‐dimethylacridin‐10(9H )‐yl]phenyl}‐2,2′‐bipyrimidine (Ac‐bpm) and 5,5′‐bis[4‐(10H ‐phenoxazin‐10‐yl)phenyl]‐2,2′‐bipyrimidine (Px‐bpm), based on the 2,2′‐bipyrimidine accepting unit, were developed and their TADF devices were fabricated. The orthogonal geometry between the donor unit and the 2,2′‐bipyrimidine accepting core facilitated a HOMO/LUMO spatial separation, thus realizing thermally activated delayed fluorescence. The exhibited electroluminescence ranged from green to yellow, depending on the donor unit, with maximum external quantum efficiencies of up to 17.1 %.     

Optimizing Optoelectronic Properties of Pyrimidine‐Based TADF Emitters by Changing the Substituent for Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes with External Quantum Efficiency Close to 25 % and Slow Efficiency Roll‐Off

A series of green butterfly‐shaped thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters, namely PXZPM , PXZMePM , and PXZPhPM , are developed by integrating an electron‐donor (D) phenoxazine unit and electron‐acceptor (A) 2‐substituted pyrimidine moiety into one molecule via a phenyl‐bridge π linkage to form a D –π–A–π–D configuration. Changing the substituent at pyrimidine unit in these emitters can finely tune their emissive characteristics, thermal properties, and energy gaps between the singlet and triplet states while maintaining frontier molecular orbital levels, and thereby optimizing their optoelectronic properties. Employing these TADF emitters results in a green fluorescent organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) that exhibits a peak forward‐viewing external quantum efficiency (EQE) close to 25 % and a slow efficiency roll‐off characteristic at high luminance.     

Molecular Orbital Controlling Donor Moiety for High‐Efficiency Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Emitters

A new donor moiety, 7,7,13,13‐tetramethyl‐7,13‐dihydro‐5H‐indeno[1,2‐b]acridine (IAc), was developed to control the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) dispersion of thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) emitters. The IAc unit expanded the HOMO dispersion of the emitters and increased the quantum efficiency of the TADF devices up to 20.9 %.     

Highly Efficient Near‐Infrared Delayed Fluorescence Organic Light Emitting Diodes Using a Phenanthrene‐Based Charge‐Transfer Compound

Significant efforts have been made to develop high‐efficiency organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) employing thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters with blue, green, yellow, and orange–red colors. However, efficient TADF materials with colors ranging from red, to deep‐red, to near‐infrared (NIR) have been rarely reported owing to the difficulty in molecular design. Herein, we report the first NIR TADF molecule TPA‐DCPP (TPA=triphenylamine; DCPP=2,3‐dicyanopyrazino phenanthrene) which has a small singlet–triplet splitting (ΔE_ST) of 0.13 eV. Its nondoped OLED device exhibits a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 2.1 % with a Commission International de L′Éclairage (CIE) coordinate of (0.70, 0.29). Moreover, an extremely high EQE of nearly 10 % with an emission band at λ=668 nm has been achieved in the doped device, which is comparable to the most‐efficient deep‐red/NIR phosphorescent OLEDs with similar electroluminescent spectra.     

Dithia[3.3]paracyclophane Core: A Versatile Platform for Triplet State Fine‐Tuning and Through‐Space TADF Emission

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) based on through‐space donor and acceptor interactions constitute a recent and promising approach to develop efficient TADF emitters. Novel TADF isomers using a dithia[3.3]‐paracyclophane building block as a versatile 3D platform to promote through‐space interactions are presented. Such a 3D platform allows to bring together the D and A units into close proximity and to probe the effect of their orientation, contact site and distance on their TADF emission properties. This study provides evidence that the dithia[3.3]paracyclophane core is a promising platform to control intramolecular through‐space interactions and obtain an efficient TADF emission with short reverse‐intersystem crossing (RISC) lifetimes. In addition, this study demonstrates that this design can tune the energy levels of the triplet states and leads to an upconversion from ³CT to ³LE that promotes faster and more efficient RISC to the ¹CT singlet state.     

Benzimidazobenzothiazole‐Based Bipolar Hosts to Harvest Nearly All of the Excitons from Blue Delayed Fluorescence and Phosphorescent Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Much effort has been devoted to developing highly efficient organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) that function through phosphorescence or thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). However, efficient host materials for blue TADF and phosphorescent guest emitters are limited because of their requirement of high triplet energy levels. Herein, we report the rigid acceptor unit benzimidazobenzothiazole (BID‐BT), which is suitable for use in bipolar hosts in blue OLEDs. The designed host materials, based on BID‐BT, possess high triplet energy and bipolar carrier transport ability. Both blue TADF and phosphorescent OLEDs containing BID‐BT‐based derivatives exhibit external quantum efficiencies as high as 20 %, indicating that these hosts allow efficient triplet exciton confinement appropriate for blue TADF and phosphorescent guest emitters.     

Intermolecular Charge‐Transfer Transition Emitter Showing Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence for Efficient Non‐Doped OLEDs

A novel molecular model of connecting electron‐donating (D) and electron‐withdrawing (A) moieties via a space‐enough and conjugation‐forbidden linkage (D‐Spacer‐A) is proposed to develop efficient non‐doped thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters. 10‐(4‐(4‐(4,6‐diphenyl‐1,3,5‐triazin‐2‐yl) phenoxy) phenyl)‐9,9‐dimethyl‐9,10‐dihydroacridine (DMAC‐o‐TRZ) was designed and synthesized accordingly. As expected, it exhibits local excited properties in single‐molecule state as D‐Spacer‐A molecular backbone strongly suppress the intramolecular charge‐transfer (CT) transition. And intermolecular CT transition acted as the vital radiation channel for neat DMAC‐o‐TRZ film. As in return, the non‐doped device exhibits a remarkable maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 14.7 %. These results prove the feasibility of D‐Spacer‐A molecules to develop intermolecular CT transition TADF emitters for efficient non‐doped OLEDs.     

High Power Efficiency Blue‐to‐Green Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes Using Isonicotinonitrile‐Based Fluorescent Emitters

Herein, 9,10‐dihydro‐9,9‐dimethylacridine (Ac) or phenoxazine (PXZ)‐substituted isonicotinonitrile (INN) derivatives, denoted as 2AcINN , 26AcINN , and 26PXZINN , were developed as a series of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters. These emitters showed reasonably high photoluminescence quantum yields of 71–79 % in the host films and high power efficiency organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). Sky‐blue emitter 26AcINN exhibited a low turn‐on voltage of 2.9 V, a high external quantum efficiency (η _ext) of 22 %, and a high power efficiency (η _p) of 66 lm W⁻¹ with Commission Internationale de l′Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of (0.22, 0.45), whereas green emitter 26PXZINN exhibited a low turn‐on voltage of 2.2 V, a high η _ext of 22 %, and a high η _p of 99 lm W⁻¹ with CIE chromaticity coordinates of (0.37, 0.58). These performances are among the best for TADF OLEDs to date.     

Acridan‐Grafted Poly(biphenyl germanium) with High Triplet Energy,Low Polarizability,and an External Heavy‐Atom Effect for Highly Efficient Sky‐Blue TADF Electroluminescence

We propose the novel σ–π conjugated polymer poly(biphenyl germanium) grafted with two electron‐donating acridan moieties on the Ge atom for use as the host material in a polymer light‐emitting diode (PLED) with the sky‐blue‐emitting thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) material DMAC‐TRZ as the guest. Its high triplet energy (E_T) of 2.86 eV is significantly higher than those of conventional π–π conjugated polymers (E_T=2.65 eV as the limit) and this guest emitter (E_T=2.77 eV). The TADF emitter emits bluer emission than in other host materials owing to the low orientation polarizability of the germanium‐based polymer host. The Ge atom also provides an external heavy‐atom effect, which increases the rate of reverse intersystem crossing in this TADF guest, so that more triplet excitons are harvested for light emission. The sky‐blue TADF electroluminescence with this host/guest pair gave a record‐high external quantum efficiency of 24.1 % at maximum and 22.8 % at 500 cd m^?2.     

Carbazole Dendrimers as Solution‐Processable Thermally Activated Delayed‐Fluorescence Materials

Recently, thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials have received increasing attention as effective emitters for organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, most of them are usually employed as dopants in a host material. In this report, carbazole dendrimers with a triphenyl‐s‐triazine core are reported, which are the first solution‐processable, non‐doped, high‐molecular‐weight TADF materials. The dendrimers were obtained by a new and facile synthetic route using the tert‐butyldimethylsilyl moiety as a protecting group. All dendrimers showed TADF in toluene. Measurements of the temperature‐dependent luminescence lifetime revealed that spin‐coated neat films also showed TADF with moderate quantum yields. OLED devices incorporating these dendrimers as spin‐coated emitting layers gave external quantum efficiencies of up to a 3.4 %, which suggests that this device is harvesting triplet excitons. This result indicates that carbazole dendrimers with attached acceptors are potential TADF materials owing to their polarized electronic structure (with HOMO–LUMO separation).     

Acridan‐Grafted Poly(biphenyl germanium) with High Triplet Energy,Low Polarizability,and an External Heavy‐Atom Effect for Highly Efficient Sky‐Blue TADF Electroluminescence

We propose the novel σ–π conjugated polymer poly(biphenyl germanium) grafted with two electron‐donating acridan moieties on the Ge atom for use as the host material in a polymer light‐emitting diode (PLED) with the sky‐blue‐emitting thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) material DMAC‐TRZ as the guest. Its high triplet energy (E_T) of 2.86 eV is significantly higher than those of conventional π–π conjugated polymers (E_T=2.65 eV as the limit) and this guest emitter (E_T=2.77 eV). The TADF emitter emits bluer emission than in other host materials owing to the low orientation polarizability of the germanium‐based polymer host. The Ge atom also provides an external heavy‐atom effect, which increases the rate of reverse intersystem crossing in this TADF guest, so that more triplet excitons are harvested for light emission. The sky‐blue TADF electroluminescence with this host/guest pair gave a record‐high external quantum efficiency of 24.1 % at maximum and 22.8 % at 500 cd m^?2.     

Triggering Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence by Managing the Heteroatom in Donor Scaffolds: Intriguing Photophysical and Electroluminescence Properties

Establishment of the structure–property relationships of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials has become a significant quest for the scientific community. Herein, two new donors, 10H‐benzofuro[3,2‐b]indole (BFI) and 10H‐benzo[4,5]thieno[3,2‐b]indole (BTI), have been developed and integrated with a aryltriazine acceptor to design the green TADF emitters benzofuro[3,2‐b]indol‐10‐yl)‐5‐(4,6‐diphenyl‐1,3,5‐triazin‐2‐yl)benzonitrile ( BFICNTrz ) and 2‐(10H‐benzo[4,5]thieno[3,2‐b]indol‐10‐yl)‐5‐(4,6‐diphenyl‐1,3,5‐triazin‐2‐yl)benzonitrile ( BTICNTrz ), respectively. The physicochemical and electroluminescence properties of the compounds were tuned by exchanging the heteroatom in the donor scaffold. Intriguingly, the electronegativity of the heteroatom and the ionization potential of the donor unit played vital roles in control of the singlet–triplet energy splitting and TADF mechanism of the compounds. Both compounds showed similar singlet excited states that originated from the charge transfer (CT) states (¹CT), whereas the triplet excited states were tuned by the heteroatom in the donor unit. The origin of phosphorescence in the BTICNTrz emitter was CT emission from the triplet state (³CT), whereas that in the BFICNTrz emitter stemmed from the local triplet excited state (³LE). Consequently, BTICNTrz showed a small singlet–triplet energy splitting of 0.08 eV, compared with 0.26 eV for BFICNTrz . Thus, BTICNTrz showed efficient delayed fluorescence with a high quantum yield and a short delayed exciton lifetime, whereas BFICNTrz displayed weak delayed fluorescence with a relatively long lifetime. Furthermore, a BTICNTrz ‐based device exhibited a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 15.2 % and reduced efficiency roll‐off (12 %) compared with its BFICNTrz ‐based counterpart, which showed a maximum EQE of 6.4 % and severe efficiency roll‐off (55 %) at a practical brightness range of 1000 cd m^?2. These results demonstrate that the choice of subunit plays a vital role in the design of efficient TADF emitters.     

The Importance of Vibronic Coupling for Efficient Reverse Intersystem Crossing in Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Molecules

Factors influencing the rate of reverse intersystem crossing (k_rISC) in thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters are critical for improving the efficiency and performance of third‐generation heavy‐metal‐free organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, present understanding of the TADF mechanism does not extend far beyond a thermal equilibrium between the lowest singlet and triplet states and consequently research has focused almost exclusively on the energy gap between these two states. Herein, we use a model spin‐vibronic Hamiltonian to reveal the crucial role of non‐Born‐Oppenheimer effects in determining k_rISC. We demonstrate that vibronic (nonadiabatic) coupling between the lowest local excitation triplet (³LE) and lowest charge transfer triplet (³CT) opens the possibility for significant second‐order coupling effects and increases k_rISC by about four orders of magnitude. Crucially, these simulations reveal the dynamical mechanism for highly efficient TADF and opens design routes that go beyond the Born‐Oppenheimer approximation for the future development of high‐performing systems.     

Meta Junction Promoting Efficient Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence in Donor‐Acceptor Conjugated Polymers

The meta junction is proposed to realize efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) in donor–acceptor (D‐A) conjugated polymers. Based on triphenylamine as D and dicyanobenzene as A, as a proof of concept, a series of D‐A conjugated polymers has been developed by changing their connection sites. When the junction between D and A is tuned from para to meta, the singlet–triplet energy splitting (ΔE_ST) is found to be significantly decreased from 0.44 to 0.10 eV because of the increasing hole–electron separation. Unlike the para‐linked analogue with no TADF, consequently, the meta‐linked polymer shows a strong delayed fluorescence. Its corresponding solution‐processed organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) achieve a promising external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 15.4 % (51.9 cd A^?1, 50.9 lm W^?1) and CIE coordinates of (0.34, 0.57). The results highlight the bright future of D‐A conjugated polymers used for TADF OLEDs.     

Modulation of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence in Waterborne Polyurethanes via Charge‐Transfer Effect

Here, we designed several waterborne polyurethanes (WPUs) with efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) via serving charge‐transfer (CT) states as a mediate bridge between singlet and triplet states to boost reverse intersystem crossing (RISC). By tuning substituents of diphenyl sulfone (DS), we found that O,O′‐ and S,S′‐substituted DS covalently incorporated in WPUs solely show typical fluorescence emission with lifetimes in the nanosecond range. Interestingly, TADF appears by replacing the substituent with the nitrogen atom, of which lifetimes are up to ≈10 microseconds and ≈1 millisecond in air and vacuum, respectively, even though the energy gap between singlet and triplet states (ΔE_ST) is still large for generating TADF. To explain this phenomenon, an energy level mode based on CT states and an ³(n‐π*) receiver state was proposed. By the rational modulation of CT states, it is possible to tune the ΔE_ST to render TADF‐based materials suitable for versatile applications.     

Twisted penta‐Carbazole/Benzophenone Hybrid Compound as Multifunctional Organic Host,Dopant or Non‐doped Emitter for Highly Efficient Solution‐Processed Delayed Fluorescence OLEDs

A new multi‐functional penta‐carbazole/benzophenone hybrid compound 5CzBP was designed and synthesized through a simple one‐step catalyst‐free C—N coupling reaction by using 2,3,4,5,6‐pentafluorobenzophenone and carbazole as starting materials. 5CzBP is very soluble in tetrahydrofuran (THF), which brings an environmentally friendly device fabrication for solution‐processed OLEDs instead of most widely used chlorinated solvents when 5CzBP is employed as the bulk‐phase of organic host or non‐doped emitter in the emissive layer. 5CzBP exhibits thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) characteristic with relatively high triplet energy of 2.60 eV and a low ΔE_ST of 0.01 eV. By using the new TADF material as organic host for another green TADF emitter, maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 12.5% has been achieved in simple solution‐processed OLED device. Besides, a maximum EQE of 8.9% and 5.7% was further obtained in TADF devices based on 5CzBP as dopant and non‐doped emitter, respectively. The simultaneously acting as efficient TADF host and non‐doped TADF emitter provides the potential guidance of the future simple single‐layer two‐color white OLEDs based on low‐cost pure organic TADF materials.     

Controlling Singlet–Triplet Energy Splitting for Deep‐Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters

The development of efficient metal‐free organic emitters with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) properties for deep‐blue emission is still challenging. A new family of deep‐blue TADF emitters based on a donor–acceptor architecture has been developed. The electronic interaction between donor and acceptor plays a key role in the TADF mechanism. Deep‐blue OLEDs fabricated with these TADF emitters achieved high external quantum efficiencies over 19.2 % with CIE coordinates of (0.148, 0.098).