Benchmarking of Density Functionals for the Description of Optical Properties of Newly Synthesized π-Conjugated TADF Blue Emitters

Computational modeling of the optical characteristics of organic molecules with potential for thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) may assist markedly the development of more efficient emitting materials for organic light-emitting diodes. Recent theoretical studies in this area employ mostly methods from density functional theory (DFT). In order to obtain accurate predictions within this approach, the choice of a proper functional is crucial. In the current study, we focus on testing the performance of a set of DFT functionals for estimation of the excitation and emission energy and the excited singlet-triplet energy gap of three newly synthesized compounds with capacity for TADF. The emitters are designed specifically to enable charge transfer by π-electron conjugation, at the same time possessing high-energy excited triplet states. The functionals chosen for testing are from various groups ranging from gradient-corrected through global hybrids to range-separated ones. The results show that the monitored optical properties are especially sensitive to how the long-range part of the exchange energy is treated within the functional. The accurate functional should also be able to provide well balanced distribution of the π-electrons among the molecular fragments. Global hybrids with moderate (less than 0.4) share of exact exchange (B3LYP, PBE0) and the meta-GGA HSE06 are outlined as the best performing methods for the systems under study. They can predict all important optical parameters correctly, both qualitatively and quantitatively.     

基于器件结构提高TADF-OLED器件的发光性能

为了提高以TADF材料作为主体、天蓝色荧光材料作为客体的混合薄膜的OLED器件光电性能,我们调整了器件结构,使主体材料发挥其优势。制备了基本结构为ITO/NPB(40 nm)/DMAC-DPS∶x%BUBD-1(40 nm)/Bphen(30 nm)/LiF(0.5 nm)/Al的OLED器件。研究了主-客体材料在不同掺杂浓度下的OLED器件的光电特性。为了提高主体材料的利用率,在空穴传输层和发光层之间加入10 nm的DMAC-DPS作为间隔层;然后,在阳极和空穴传输层之间加入HAT-CN作为空穴注入层,形成HAT-CN/NPB结构的PN结,有效降低了器件的启亮电压(2.7 V)。测量了有无HAT-CN的单空穴器件的阻抗谱。结果表明,在最佳掺杂比例(2%)下,器件的外量子效率(EQE)达到4.92%,接近荧光OLED的EQE理论极限值;加入10 nm的DMAC-DPS作为间隔层,使得器件的EQE达到5.37%;HAT-CN/NPB结构的PN结有效地降低了器件的启亮电压(2.7 V),将OLED器件的EQE提高到5.76%;HAT-CN的加入提高了器件的空穴迁移率,降低了单空穴器件的阻抗。TADF材料作为主体材料在提高OLED器件的光电性能方面具有很大的潜力。     

Mechanochromic Delayed Fluorescence Switching in Propeller-Shaped Carbazole–Isophthalonitrile Luminogens with Stimuli-Responsive Intramolecular Charge-Transfer Excited States

Herein, the universal design of high-efficiency stimuli-responsive luminous materials endowed with mechanochromic luminescence (MCL) and thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) functions is reported. The origin of the unique stimuli-triggered TADF switching for a series of carbazole–isophthalonitrile-based donor–acceptor (D–A) luminogens is demonstrated based on systematic photophysical and X-ray analysis, coupled with theoretical calculations. It was revealed that a tiny alteration of the intramolecular D–A twisting in the excited-state structures governed by the solid morphologies is responsible for this dynamic TADF switching behavior. This concept is applicable to the fabrication of bicolor emissive organic light-emitting diodes using a single TADF emitter.     

Integrating Time-Resolved Imaging Information by Single-Luminophore Dual Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence

The fact that the lifetime of photoluminescence is often difficult to access because of the weakness of the emission signals, seriously limits the possibility to gain local bioimaging information in time-resolved luminescence probing. We aim to provide a solution to this problem by creating a general photophysical strategy based on the use of molecular probes designed for single-luminophore dual thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). The structural and conformational design makes the dual TADF strong in both diluted solution and in an aggregated state, thereby reducing sensitivity to oxygen quenching and enabling a unique dual-channel time-resolved imaging capability. As the two TADF signals show mutual complementarity during probing, a dual-channel means that lifetime mapping is established to reduce the time-resolved imaging distortion by 30–40 %. Consequently, the leading intracellular local imaging information is serialized and integrated, which allows comparison to any single time-resolved signal, and leads to a significant improvement of the probing capacity.     

新型共价交联纳米胶囊的构筑、调控与功能

利用共价自组装的方法，将刚性组装基元与柔性链在一定条件下进行横向交联，可以方便地制备出单层高分子纳米胶囊.相比于传统的非共价超分子囊泡，这种新型的共价纳米胶囊具有结构稳定、尺度可控且分散性优异等诸多优点.因此，如何利用化学合成的手段来制备新型的纳米胶囊，并进一步实现对其结构调控和性能的探究具有十分重要的意义.针对这些问题，分别发展了功能化的柱[5]芳烃、四苯乙烯、卟啉、三嗪、苯硼酸酐等不同类型构筑基元，并使之与两端具有活性位点的柔性烷基链在适当的溶剂中进行聚合反应，最终获得了一系列的共价纳米胶囊.通过对其结构的修饰和调控，发现这些功能化的高分子纳米胶囊在光捕获、人工酶、抗菌材料以及药物载体等领域具有诸多潜在应用价值.未来，新型共价高分子纳米胶囊的开发、功能化以及应用有望得到进一步的拓展.     

CN-Modified Imidazopyridine as a New Electron Accepting Unit of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Emitters

Two efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) emitters were developed by utilizing CN-modified imidazopyridine as an acceptor unit. The CN-modified imidazopyridine acceptor was combined with either an acridine donor or a phenoxazine donor through a phenyl linker to produce two TADF emitters, Ac-CNImPy and PXZ-CNImPy. The acridine-based Ac-CNImPy emitter exhibited sky-blue emission with a CIE coordinate of (0.18, 0.38), whereas the phenoxazine-donor-based PXZ-CNImPy showed greenish-yellow emission with a CIE coordinate of (0.32, 0.58). A high photoluminescence quantum yield of 80 % was observed for the PXZ-CNImPy emitter compared with 40 % for the Ac-CNImPy emitter. Organic light-emitting diodes based on the PXZ-CNImPy emitter demonstrated high external quantum efficiency of 17.0 %. Hence, the CN-modified imidazopyridine unit can be considered as a useful electron acceptor for the future design of highly efficient TADF emitters.     

Molecular Engineering of Isomeric Benzofurocarbazole Donors for Photophysical Management of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters

Benzofurocarbazole moieties are commonly used donor structures in the design of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters. However, only 5 H-benzofuro[3,2-c]carbazole (34BFCz) has been reported and, to the best of our knowledge, no other benzofurocarbazole derivatives have been covered in the literature. In the present study, two further benzofurocarbazole moieties, 12 H-benzofuro[3,2-a]carbazole (12BFCz) and 7 H-benzofuro[2,3-b]carbazole (23BFCz), have been synthesized to investigate the effect of the donor structure on the photophysics and device parameters of TADF emitters. Two benzofurocarbazole-derived TADF emitters, 12-(2-(4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)phenyl)-12 H-benzofuro[3,2-a]carbazole (o12BFCzTrz) and 7-(2-(4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)phenyl)-7 H-benzofuro[2,3-b]carbazole (o23BFCzTrz), have been compared with 5-(2-(4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)phenyl)-5 H-benzofuro[3,2-c]carbazole (oBFCzTrz). The benzofurocarbazole donor structure governs the TADF characteristics, such as charge-transfer property and emission color. The 12BFCz donor has proved to be effective in blue-shifting the emission color, and 34BFCz has proven useful for improving the external quantum efficiency (EQE). The 12BFCz-derived o12BFCzTrz showed blue-shifted color coordinates of (0.159, 0.288), compared to (0.178, 0388) for o23BFCzTrz and (0.169, 0.341) for oBFCzTrz. The 34BFCz-derived oBFCzTrz exhibited an EQE of 22.9 %, compared to 19.2 % for o12BFCzTrz and 21.1 % for o23BFCzTrz.     

Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube Thin Films for Flexible Transistors by Using a Cross-Linked Amine Polymer

Owing to their remarkable properties, single-walled carbon nanotube thin-film transistors (SWCNT-TFTs) are expected to be used in various flexible electronics applications. To fabricate SWCNT channel layers for TFTs, solution-based film formation on a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) covered with amino groups is commonly used. However, this method uses highly oxidized surfaces, which is not suitable for flexible polymeric substrates. In this work, a solution-based SWCNT film fabrication using methoxycarbonyl polyallylamine (Moc-PAA) is reported. The NH₂-terminated surface of the cross-linked Moc-PAA layer enables the formation of highly dense and uniform SWCNT networks on both rigid and flexible substrates. TFTs that use the fabricated SWCNT thin film exhibited excellent performance with small variations. The presented simple method to access SWCNT thin film accelerates the realization of flexible nanoelectronics.     

Acridone-Based Host Materials for Green Phosphorescent and Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent OLEDs with Low-Efficiency Roll-Offs

By linking the carbazole unit to the nitrogen atom of acridone through phenyl or pyridyl, two compounds, named 10-(4-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)acridin-9(10H)-one (AC-Ph-Cz) and 10-(5-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)pyridin-2-yl)acridin-9(10H)-one (AC-Py-Cz) were designed and synthesized. These two materials, characterized with highly twisted and rigid structure, good thermal stability, and balanced carrier-transporting properties, were employed as host materials for green phosphorescent and thermally activated delayed fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The carbazole group, despite its small contribution to the highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMOs) of these two materials, plays an essential role as an intramolecular host in energy delivering and improving the hole transporting ability of these two hosts. The incorporation of the electron-deficient pyridyl group as a linking group slightly improves the electron transporting capability of AC-Py-Cz. The green phosphorescent OLED (PhOLED) based on AC-Py-Cz exhibited excellent device performance with a turn-on voltage of 2.5 V, a maximum power efficiency and an external quantum efficiency (η_ext) of 89.8 lm W⁻¹ and 25.2 %, respectively, benefitting from the better charge-balancing ability of AC-Py-Cz host due to the presence of the pyridyl bridge. More importantly, all the devices based on these two hosts showed low efficiency roll-off at high brightness due to the suppressed non-radiative transition in the emitting layer. In particular, the AC-Py-Cz-hosted green PhOLED exhibited an efficiency roll-off of 1.6 % from the maximum next at a high brightness of 1000 cd m⁻² and a roll-off of 15.9 % at an extremely high brightness of 10000 cd m⁻². This study manifests that acridone-based host materials have great potential in fabricating OLEDs with low efficiency roll-off.     

多共振热激活延迟荧光过程的理论研究

本工作借助第一性原理和动力学演化,系统地研究了四个叔丁基-咔唑及吩噻嗪取代的硼-氮化合物(BCz-BN、2PTZ-BN、Cz-PTZ-BN和2Cz-PTZ-BN)的多共振热激活延迟荧光的高效发光机制.结果表明上述分子T₁与T₂间的内转换速率远大于其它辐射与非辐射速率,同时T₂到S₁的反向系间窜越速率也高于T₁到S₁的反向系间窜越速率,因此其多共振热激活延迟荧光过程应遵循T₁→T₂→S₁→S₀的路径.进一步动力学演化表明,T₁与T₂之间的内转换主要发生在演化初期,随着时间的推移,能量逐渐由T₂向S₁转移,并最终在S₁完成荧光发射.上述研究揭示了多共振延迟荧光的微观本质,为未来设计及合成新的多共振热激活延迟荧光分子提供了理论依据.