Molecular engineering on all ortho-linked carbazole/oxadiazole hybrids toward highly-efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence materials in OLEDs

All ortho-linked D-A and D-A-D molecules exhibit non-TADF feature due to broad spatial overlap at triplet excited state for large △E_ST,while A-D-A compounds show strong TADF property owing to efficient spatial separation for small △E_ST.     

Quinoline-based aggregation-induced delayed fluorescence materials for highly efficient non-doped organic light-emitting diodes

Three new emitters,namely 10,10'-(quinoline-2,8-diyl)bis(10 H-phenoxazine)(Fene),10,10'-(quinoline-2,8-diyl)bis(10 H-phenothiazine)(Fens) and 10,10'-(quinoline-2,8-diyl)bis(9,9-dimethyl-9,10-dihydroacridine)(Yad),featuring quinoline as a new electron acceptor have been designed and conveniently synthesized.These emitters possessed small singlet-triplet splitting energy(ΔEst) and twisted structures,which not only endowed them show thermally activated delayed fluorescence(TADF)properties but also afforded a remarkable aggregation-induced emission(AIE) feature.Moreover,they also showed aggregation-induced delayed fluorescence(AIDF) property and good photoluminescence(PL) property,which are the ideal emitters for non-doped organic light-emitting diodes(OLEDs).Furthermore,high-performance non-doped OLEDs based on Fene,Fens and Yad were achieved,and excelle nt maximum external quantum efficiencies(EQE_(max)) of 14,9%,13.1% and 17,4%,respectively,were obtained.It was also found that all devices exhibited relatively low turn-on voltages ranging from 3.0 V to3.2 V probably due to their twisted conformation and the AIDF properties.These results demonstrated the quinoline-based emitters could have a promising application in non-doped OLEDs.     

Novel hyperbranched polymers as host materials for green thermally activated delayed fluorescence OLEDs

A series of novel hyperbranched polymers(HBPs) consisting of a 2,7-subsituted 9-(heptadecan-9-yl)-9H-carbazole unit(A_2+A_2') and a tetra-substituted green thermally activated delayed fluorescence(TADF) dye of 2,3,5,6-tetra(9Hcarbazol-9-yl)-4-pyridinecarbonitrile(4CzCNPy, B4) have been synthesized via Suzuki cross-coupling reaction following an "A2+A2'+B_4" method. The polymers are named according to the polymerization ratio of 4CzCNPy monomer(5 mol%, 10 mol% and 15 mol% for HBPs of P2-P4 respectively, and 0 mol% for the control linear polymer P1). Their thermal, optoelectronic and electrochemical properties have been characterized by a combination of techniques. All the polymers exhibit high thermal stability with the decomposition temperatures(Td) above 400 ℃ and glass transition temperatures(Tg) up to 98 ℃. Unfortunately, the incorporation of TADF moiety into these HBP materials induced non-TADF characteristics. However, when the HBPs functionalized as the host for our previously developed 4CzCNPy TADF dopant in solution processed devices, maximum external quantum efficiency of 5.7% and current efficiency of 17.9 cd/A have been achieved in P3-based device, which is significantly higher than those of 1.5% and 4.2 cd/A for the linear polymer P1.     

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules and their new applications aside from OLEDs

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules (TADF) molecules have been found to undergo efficient intersystem crossing (ISC) and reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) processes, which benefit their successful applications in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Due to their long-lived delayed fluorescence, TADF molecules can also be applied in time-resolved luminescence imaging. Besides their special singlet properties, their excited triplet characteristics provide their potential applications in triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC), photodynamic therapy (PDT) and organic photocatalytic synthesis by used as a triplet photosensitizer.     

Alkoxy encapsulation of carbazole-based thermally activated delayed fluorescent dendrimers for highly efficient solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes

Two n-butoxy-encapsulated dendritic thermally activated delayed fluorescent(TADF) emitters(namely O-D1 and O-D2) with the first-/second-generation carbazoledendrons are designed and synthesized via C—N coupling between carbazoledendrons and 2,4,6-tris(4-bromophenyl)-1,3,5-triazine core.It is found that,compa red with the commo nly-used tert-butyl groups,the use of n-butoxy encapsulation groups can lead to smallersinglet-triplet energy gap for the dendrimers,producing stronger TADF effect together with faster reverse intersystem crossing process.Solution-processed TADF organic light-emitting diodes(OLEDs) utilizingalkoxy-encapsulated dendrimers O-D1 and O-D2 as emitters exhibitstate-of-the-art device efficiency withthe maximum external quantum efficiency up to 16.8% and 20.6%,respectively,which are ～1.6 and～2.0 times that of the tert-butyl-encapsulated counterparts.These results suggest that alkoxy encapsulation of the carbazole-based TADF dendrimers can be a promising approach for developing highly efficient emitters for solution-processed OLEDs.     

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules and their new applications aside from OLEDs

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic molecules feature with long-lived delayed fluorescence, because they can undergo not only efficient intersystem crossing (ISC), but also efficient reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) at room temperature. As a new type of luminescent molecules, they have exhibited successful applications in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Aside from OLEDs, they are also found to have potential applications in time-resolved luminescence imaging based on long-lived fluorescence property. Meanwhile, due to their excited triplet characteristic originated from efficient ISC, they were found to be applied in triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC), photodynamic therapy (PDT) and organic photocatalytic synthesis. This review briefly summarizes the characteristics and excellent photophysical properties of TADF organic compounds, then covers their applications to date aside from OLEDs based on their highly efficient ISC ability and RISC ability at room temperature.     

Four-coordinate boron compounds derived from 2-(2-pyridyl)phenol ligand as novel hole-blocking materials for phosphorescent OLEDs

Four-coordinate boron compounds of Ph₂B · 1 (2) and (C₆F₅)₃B(1 · H) (3) were prepared from the reaction of 2-(2-pyridyl)phenol (1 · H) ligand with triarylborane starting materials, BPh₃ and B(C₆F₅)₃, respectively, and tested as hole-blocking layer (HBL) materials in phosphorescent OLEDs. While the crystal structure of 2 reveals the pseudo-tetrahedral geometry around the boron center with bidentate [N,O] chelation by 1, 3 is characterized as the zwitterionic four-coordinate system where the ligand 1 · H acts as monodentate [O] chelator with N-protonation. UV-Vis absorption and PL spectra of 2 and 3 are consistent with the ligand-centered, HOMO-LUMO electronic transitions with charge transfer from a phenoxide ring to a pyridine, which was further supported by time dependent DFT calculation for 2. Both compounds are found to possess the HOMO-LUMO energy gap of 3.1 eV appropriate for hole-blocking materials for phosphorescent OLEDs. The devices incorporating 2 and 3 as HBL materials displayed stable green phosphorescence of Ir(ppy)₃ (ppy = 2-phenylpyridine) with low turn-on voltage of 3.2 and 3.4 V, respectively, indicating that 2 and 3 function as HBL materials. Although both devices show the short lifetime (<1 h) probably owing to the low thermal stability, the device based on 2 displays better performances in terms of luminance, power and luminance efficiency, and external quantum efficiency in a wide range of current densities (0.1-100 mA/cm²) than the reference device incorporating BAlq as HBL materials.     

Study of aggregation induced emission of cyano-substituted oligo (p-phenylenevinylene) by femtosecond time resolved fluorescence

The aggregation induced emission (AIE) mechanism of the cyano-substituted oligo (p-phenylenevinylene)1,4-bis [1-cyano-2-(4-(diphenylamino) phenyl) vinyl] benzene (TPCNDSB) is investigated by time resolved fluorescence technique. By reconstructing the time resolved emission spectra (TRES), it is found that in solvent of low polarity, the emission is mainly from the local emission (LE) state with high quantum yield, but in high polarity solvent, the emission is mainly from the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) state, which is a relatively dark state, with low quantum yield. In crystal form, the restriction of transfer from LE state to ICT state results in efficient AIE.     

有机发光二极管中三重态激子的单重态转换

在OLED的研究中如何充分利用三重态激子以提高器件的电-光转换效率一直是人们关注的问题,近年来出现的经热激活逆向上转换过程获得延迟荧光的办法,使OLED的研究出现了一派崭新的前景。本文综合前人的工作对有关这一领域的研究基础,如：电子跃迁、激发态的分裂、单重态/三重态的交换能量、载流子的重合和激子的形成,以及在纯有机化合物与有机-过渡金属配合物中的电荷转移（CT）问题等,进行了较详细的讨论。     

Synthesis and characterization of high Tg carbazole-based amorphous hole-transporting materials for organic light-emitting devices

Novel hole-transporting materials based on carbazole dendrimers, namely G1CBC and G2CBC were synthesized and characterized. They are thermally stable with high glass transition temperatures (T_g) up to 245 °C and exhibit chemically-stable redox processes. Double-layer green OLEDs using these materials as the hole-transporting layer (HTL) with the device configuration of ITO/HTL/Alq3/LiF:Al emit brightly (λ_em 522-534 nm) from the Alq3 layer with a maximum luminance and low turn-on voltage of 15,890 cd/m² and 3.0 V, respectively. Their ability as HTLs in terms of device performance is comparable to the common hole-transporter N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-naphthyl)-(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (NPB), however their thermal properties were far greater than both NPB and N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N′-bis(phenyl)benzidine (TPD).     

Bis(4-diphenylaminophenyl)carbazole end-capped fluorene as solution-processed deep-blue light-emitting and hole-transporting materials for electroluminescent devices

A new highly fluorescent bis(4-diphenylaminophenyl)carbazole end-capped fluorene (TCF) is synthesized and characterized. TCF is an amorphous molecular glass with a high glass transition temperature of 169 °C, is electrochemically stable, and gives strong blue emission both in solution and solid state. It showed greater ability as a solution processed blue emitter and hole-transporter for OLEDs than commonly used NPB. High-efficiency, deep-blue and Alq3-based green devices with luminance efficiencies and CIE coordinates of 0.93 cd/A and (0.16, 0.09), and 3.78 cd/A and (0.29, 0.45) were achieved, respectively.     

Spatial donor/acceptor architecture for intramolecular charge-transfer emitter

Charge transfer via electron hopping from an electron donor (D) to an acceptor (A) in nanoscale, plays a crucial role in optoelectronic materials, such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). Here, we propose a strategy for binding D/A units in space, where intramolecular charge-transfer can take place. The resulted material DM-Me-B is able to give bright emission in this molecular architecture because of the good control of D/A interaction and conformational rigidity. Moreover, DM-Me-B presents small singlet-triplet splitting energy, enabling thermally activated delayed fluorescence. Therefore, the DM-Me-B exhibits ～20% maximum external quantum efficiency and low efficiency roll-off at 1000 cd/m², certifying an effective strategy in controlling D/A blocks through space.     

Triphenyl phosphine oxide and carbazole-based polymer host materials for green phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes

Four novel polymers, poly(3,6-9-decyl-carbazole-alt-1,3-benzene)(PB13CZ), poly(3,6-9-decyl-carbazole-altbis(4-phenyl)(phenyl) phosphine oxide)(PTPPO38CZ), poly(3,6-9-decyl-carbazole-alt-2,4-phenyl(diphenyl) phosphine oxide)(PTPPO13CZ) and poly(3,6-9-decyl-carbazole-alt-bis(3-phenyl)(phenyl) phosphine oxide)(PTTPO27CZ) were synthesized, and their thermal, photophysical properties and device applications were further investigated to correlate the chemical structures with the photoelectric performance of bipolar host materials for phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes. All of them show high thermal stability as revealed by their high glass transition temperatures and thermal decomposition temperatures at 5% weight loss. These polymers have wide band gaps and relatively high triplet energy levels. As a result, the spin coating method was used to prepare the green phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes with polymers PTPPO38 CZ, PTPPO13 CZ and PTTPO27 CZ as the typical host materials. The green device of polymer PTPPO38 CZ as host material shows electroluminescent performance with maximum current efficiency of 2.16 cd·A~(-1), maximum external quantum efficiency of 0.7%, maximum brightness of 1475 cd·m~(-2) and reduced efficiency roll-off of 7.14% at 600 cd·m~(-2), which are much better than those of the same devices hosted by polymers PTTPO27 CZ and PTPPO13 CZ.     

Photophysical Properties of 4′-(p-aminophenyl)-2,2′:6′,2′′-terpyridine

Spectral and photophysical investigations of 4′-(p-aminophenyl)-2,2′:6′,2′′-terpyridine (APT) have been performed in various solvents with different polarity and hydrogen-bonding ability.The emission spectra of APT are found to exhibit dual fluorescence in polar solvents, which attributes to the local excited and intramolecular charge transfer states, respectively. The two-state model is proven out for APT in polar solvent by the time-correlated single photon counting emission decay measurement. Interestingly, the linear relationships of different emission maxima and solvent polarity parameter are found for APT in protic and aprotic solvents, because of the hydrogen bond formation between APT and alcohols at the amino nitrogen N25. Furthermore, the effects of the complexation of the metal ion with tpy group of APT and the hydrogen bond formation between APT with methanol at the terpyridinenitrogen N4—N8—N14 are also presented. The appearance of new long-wave absorption and fluorescence bands indicates that a new ground state of the complexes is formed.     

Acridin-9(10H)-one-based blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence materials: improvement of color purity and efficiency stability

A series of donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) type blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters, namely, 2,7-DtBuCz-AD, 3,6-DtBuCz-AD, 3,6-DMAC-AD, and 3,6-DMAC-AD-CF₃, were developed with highly rigid acridin-9(10H)-one (i.e. acridone [AD]) as acceptor. The regioisomeric effect study revealed that the attachment of donors at 3,6-sites of AD ring dramatically enhanced TADF ratio in comparison with the 2,7-site isomer. On the one hand, by varying donors from dimethylacridine (DMAC) to tert-butylcarbazole (tBuCz) at 3,6-sites of AD ring, the emission color purity of blue TADF emitters was improved from sky blue to deep blue. On the other hand, by introducing trifluoromethyl (CF₃) onto 9-site phenyl ring of 3,6-DtBuCz-AD, the efficiency stability of the sky blue emission for 3,6-DMAC-AD-CF₃ was remarkably improved. The deep blue organic light-emitting diode (OLED) of 3,6-DtBuCz-AD exhibited a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE_max) of 17.88% with CIE coordinates of (0.15, 0.08), which is among the best performances ever reported for deep blue TADF-OLEDs. The sky-blue OLED of 3,6-DMAC-AD realized an EQE_max of 23.16%. And with the incorporation of CF₃, the sky blue device of 3,6-DMAC-AD-CF₃ exhibited extremely low efficiency loss of only 5.1% at the high brightness of 1,000 cd/m².     

Binaphthalene bridged bipolar transporting materials for blue electroluminescence: toward high EL efficiency via molecular tuning

Two isomeric bipolar transporting molecules containing arylamine and benzimidazole moieties linked by 1,1′-binaphthalene bridge have been synthesized and used for blue light-emitting diodes. The highly twisted binaphthalene bridge is beneficial for amorphous morphology, good solubility, high thermal stability and high photoluminescence quantum efficiency (Φ_PL). The charge transfer bands of these compounds exhibit interesting solvent-polarity dependent fluorescence properties. The physical properties of the compounds were tunable upon binding of the benzimidazole with binaphthalene group via C- (BINAPC) or N- (BINAPN) linkage. Three-layered blue-emitting OLEDs using BINAPC or BINAPN as the emitting layer, NPB as the hole transporting layer, and TPBI as the electron transporting layer as well as hole-blocking layer exhibit good performance. External quantum efficiencies of 2.49% with color coordinates of (0.15, 0.11) and 2.67% with color coordinates of (0.16, 0.16) were achieved for BINAPC and BINAPN, respectively.     

2,6,8‐Trisubstituted 3‐Hydroxychromone Derivatives as Fluorophores for Live‐Cell Imaging

We present the synthesis and photophysical characterisation of a series of structurally diverse, fluorescent 2,6,8‐trisubstituted 3‐hydroxychromone derivatives with high fluorescence quantum yields and molar extinction coefficients. Two of these derivatives ( 9 and 10 a ) have been studied as fluorophores for cellular imaging in HeLa cells and show excellent permeability and promising fluorescence properties in a cellular environment. In addition, we have demonstrated by photophysical characterisation of 3‐isobutyroxychromone derivatives that esterification of the 3‐hydroxyl group results in acceptable and useful fluorescence properties.