Tetradentate Gold(III) Complexes as Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence (TADF) Emitters: Microwave-Assisted Synthesis and High-Performance OLEDs with Long Operational Lifetime

Structurally robust tetradentate gold(III)-emitters have potent material applications but are rare and unprecedented for those displaying thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). Herein, a novel synthetic route leading to the preparation of highly emissive, charge-neutral tetradentate [C^C^N^C] gold(III) complexes with 5-5-6-membered chelate rings has been developed through microwave-assisted C−H bond activation. These complexes show high thermal stability and with emission origin (³IL, ³ILCT, and TADF) tuned by varying the substituents of the C^C^N^C ligand. With phenoxazine/diphenylamine substituent, we prepared the first tetradentate gold(III) complexes that are TADF emitters with emission quantum yields of up to 94 % and emission lifetimes of down to 0.62 μs in deoxygenated toluene. These tetradentate Au^III TADF emitters showed good performance in vacuum-deposited OLEDs with maximum EQEs of up to 25 % and LT₉₅ of up to 5280 h at 100 cd m⁻².     

Deep‐Red to Near‐Infrared Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence in Organic Solid Films and Electroluminescent Devices

The design and synthesis of highly efficient deep red (DR) and near‐infrared (NIR) organic emitting materials with characteristic of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) still remains a great challenge. A strategy was developed to construct TADF organic solid films with strong DR or NIR emission feature. The triphenylamine (TPA) and quinoxaline‐6,7‐dicarbonitrile (QCN) were employed as electron donor (D) and acceptor (A), respectively, to synthesize a TADF compound, TPA‐QCN. The TPA‐QCN molecule with orange‐red emission in solution was employed as a dopant to prepare DR and NIR luminescent solid thin films. The high doped concentration and neat films exhibited efficient DR and NIR emissions, respectively. The highly efficient DR and NIR organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs) were fabricated by regulating TPA‐QCN dopant concentration in the emitting layers.     

Four‐Coordinate Boron Emitters with Tridentate Chelating Ligand for Efficient and Stable Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Organic Light‐Emitting Devices

A new class of four‐coordinate donor‐acceptor fluoroboron‐containing thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) compounds bearing a tridentate 2,2′‐(pyridine‐2,6‐diyl)diphenolate (dppy) ligand has been successfully designed and synthesized. Upon varying the donor moieties from carbazole to 10H‐spiro[acridine‐9,9′‐fluorene] to 9,9‐dimethyl‐9,10‐dihydroacridine, these boron derivatives exhibit a wide range of emission colors spanning from blue to yellow with a large spectral shift of 2746 cm^?1, with high PLQYs of up to 96 % in the doped thin film. Notably, vacuum‐deposited organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs) made with these boron compounds demonstrate high performances with the best current efficiencies of 55.7 cd A^?1, power efficiencies of 58.4 lm W^?1 and external quantum efficiencies of 18.0 %. More importantly, long operational stabilities of the green‐emitting OLEDs based on 2 with half‐lifetimes of up to 12 733 hours at an initial luminance of 100 cd m^?2 have been realized. This work represents for the first time the design and synthesis of tridentate dppy‐chelating four‐coordinate boron TADF compounds for long operational stabilities, suggesting great promises for the development of stable boron‐containing TADF emitters.     

Red/Near‐Infrared Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence OLEDs with Near 100 % Internal Quantum Efficiency

Developing red thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters, attainable for both high‐efficient red organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) and non‐doped deep red/near‐infrared (NIR) OLEDs, is challenging. Now, two red emitters, BPPZ‐PXZ and mDPBPZ‐PXZ, with twisted donor–acceptor structures were designed and synthesized to study molecular design strategies of high‐efficiency red TADF emitters. BPPZ‐PXZ employs the strictest molecular restrictions to suppress energy loss and realizes red emission with a photoluminescence quantum yield (Φ_PL) of 100±0.8 % and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 25.2 % in a doped OLED. Its non‐doped OLED has an EQE of 2.5 % owing to unavoidable intermolecular π–π interactions. mDPBPZ‐PXZ releases two pyridine substituents from its fused acceptor moiety. Although mDPBPZ‐PXZ realizes a lower EQE of 21.7 % in the doped OLED, its non‐doped device shows a superior EQE of 5.2 % with a deep red/NIR emission at peak of 680 nm.     

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence in an Organic Cocrystal: Narrowing the Singlet–Triplet Energy Gap via Charge Transfer

Harvesting non‐emissive spin‐triplet charge‐transfer (CT) excitons of organic semiconductors is fundamentally important for increasing the operation efficiency of future devices. Here we observe thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) in a 1:2 CT cocrystal of trans‐1,2‐diphenylethylene (TSB) and 1,2,4,5‐tetracyanobenzene (TCNB). This cocrystal system is characterized by absorption spectroscopy, variable‐temperature steady‐state and time‐resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy, single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction, and first‐principles calculations. These data reveal that intermolecular CT in cocrystal narrows the singlet–triplet energy gap and therefore facilitates reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) for TADF. These findings open up a new way for the future design and development of novel TADF materials.     

Purely Organic Crystals Exhibit Bright Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence

Thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials generally suffer from severe concentration quenching. Efficient non‐doped TADF emitters are generally highly twisted aromatic amine‐based compounds with isolated chemical moieties. Herein we demonstrate that co‐facial packing and strong π–π intermolecular interactions give rise to bright TADF emissions in non‐doped film and crystalline states within the compound 2,4‐diphenyl‐6‐(thianthren‐1‐yl)‐1,3,5‐triazine (oTE‐DRZ). Quantum chemistry simulations indicate that a disperse outer orbital of sulfur atoms, a folded thianthrene plane (for a reduced donor–acceptor distance), and a triazine acceptor with n–π* character, generate a spatially conjugated transition with a small singlet–triplet splitting energy. In company with a highly emissive non‐doped film, the corresponding organic light‐emitting diode achieved a 20.6 % external quantum efficiency, verifying its potential for high‐performance optoelectronic applications. In a crystalline state, it was verified that intra‐ and intermolecular dual TADF assisted by a hidden room‐temperature phosphorescent state. This state could preserve the long‐lived excitons while suppressing non‐radiation, and it could serve as a “spring‐board” for cascade up‐conversion processes. The oTE‐DRZ crystal showed greenish‐blue emission with a very high photoluminescent quantum yield of approximately 87 %, which is the highest among all TADF crystals reported to date.     

Highly Efficient Nondoped OLEDs with Negligible Efficiency Roll‐Off Fabricated from Aggregation‐Induced Delayed Fluorescence Luminogens

Purely organic emitters that can efficiently utilize triplet excitons are highly desired to cut the cost of organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), but most of them require complicated doping techniques for their fabrication and suffer from severe efficiency roll‐off. Herein, we developed novel luminogens with weak emission and negligible delayed fluorescence in solution but strong emission with prominent delayed components upon aggregate formation, giving rise to aggregation‐induced delayed fluorescence (AIDF). The concentration‐caused emission quenching and exciton annihilation are well‐suppressed, which leads to high emission efficiencies and efficient exciton utilization in neat films. Their nondoped OLEDs provide excellent electroluminescence efficiencies of 59.1 cd A⁻¹, 65.7 lm W⁻¹, and 18.4 %, and a negligible current efficiency roll‐off of 1.2 % at 1000 cd m⁻². Exploring AIDF luminogens for the construction of nondoped OLEDs could be a promising strategy to advance device efficiency and stability.     

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.     

Combining Charge‐Transfer Pathways to Achieve Unique Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters for High‐Performance Solution‐Processed,Non‐doped Blue OLEDs

Two efficient blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence compounds, B‐oCz and B‐oTC , composed of ortho‐donor (D)–acceptor (A) arrangement were designed and synthesized. The significant intramolecular D–A interactions induce a combined charge transfer pathway and thus achieve small ΔE _ST and high efficiencies. The concentration quenching can be effectively inhibited in films of these compounds. The blue non‐doped organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on B‐oTC prepared from solution processes shows record‐high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 19.1 %.     

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).     

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.     

Adamantane‐Substituted Acridine Donor for Blue Dual Fluorescence and Efficient Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

To date, blue dual fluorescence emission (DFE) has not been realized because of the limited choice of chemical moieties and severe geometric deformation of the DFE emitters leading to strong intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) with a large Stokes shift in excited states. Herein, an emitter (1′r,5′R,7′S)‐10‐(4‐(4,6‐diphenyl‐1,3,5‐triazin‐2‐yl)phenyl)‐10H‐spiro [acridine‐9,2′‐adamantane] (a‐DMAc‐TRZ) containing a novel adamantane‐substituted acridine donor is reported, which exhibits unusual blue DFE. The introduction of the rigid and bulky adamantane moiety not only suppressed the geometry relaxation in excited state, but also induced the formation of quasi‐axial conformer (QAC) and quasi‐equatorial conformer (QEC) geometries, leading to deep‐blue conventional fluorescence and sky‐blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). The resulting organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) achieved a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of about 29 %, which is the highest reported for OLEDs based on dual‐conformation emitters.     

Aromatic‐Imide‐Based Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials for Highly Efficient Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Aromatic‐imide‐based thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials with a twisted donor–acceptor–donor skeleton were efficiently synthesized and exhibited excellent thermal stability and high photoluminescence quantum yields. The small ΔE _ST value (<0.1 eV) along with the clear temperature‐dependent delayed component of their transient photoluminescence (PL) spectra demonstrated their excellent TADF properties. Moreover, the performance of organic light‐emitting diodes in which TADF materials AI‐Cz and AI‐TBCz were used as dopants were outstanding, with external quantum efficiencies up to 23.2 and 21.1 %, respectively.     

Tri‐Spiral Donor for High Efficiency and Versatile Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials

Blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters that can simultaneously achieve high efficiency in doped and nondoped organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) are rarely reported. Reported here is a strategy using a tri‐spiral donor for such versatile blue TADF emitters. Impressively, by simply extending the nonconjugated fragment and molecular length, aggregation‐caused emission quenching (ACQ) can be greatly alleviated to achieve as high as a 90 % horizontal orientation dipole ratio and external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of up to 33.3 % in doped and 20.0 % in nondoped sky‐blue TADF‐OLEDs. More fascinatingly, a high‐efficiency purely organic white OLED with an outstanding EQE of up to 22.8 % was also achieved by employing TspiroS‐TRZ as a blue emitter and an assistant host. This compound is the first blue TADF emitter that can simultaneously achieve high electroluminescence (EL) efficiency in doped, nondoped sky‐blue, and white TADF‐OLEDs.     

Dual-Phase Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Luminogens: A Material for Time-Resolved Imaging Independent of Probe Pretreatment and Probe Concentration

Developing luminescent probes with long lifetime and high emission efficiency is essential for time-resolved imaging. However, the practical applications usually suffer from emission quenching of traditional luminogens in aggregated states, or from weak emission of aggregation-induced emission type luminogens in monomeric states. Herein, we overcome this dilemma by a rigid-and-flexible alternation design in donor–acceptor–donor skeletons, to achieve a thermally activated delayed fluorescence luminogen with high emission efficiency both in the monomeric state (quantum yield up to 35.3 %) and in the aggregated state (quantum yield up to 30.8 %). Such a dual-phase strong and long-lived emission allows a time-resolved luminescence imaging, with an efficiency independent of probe pretreatment and probe concentration. The findings open opportunities for developing luminescent probes with a usage in larger temporal and spatial scales.     

Simultaneous Long‐Persistent Blue Luminescence and High Quantum Yield within 2D Organic–Metal Halide Perovskite Micro/Nanosheets

Molecular solid‐state materials with long‐lived luminescence (such as thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) and room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) systems) are promising for display, sensoring, and bio‐imaging applications. However, the design of such materials that exhibit both long luminescent lifetime and high solid‐state emissive efficiency remains an open challenge. Two‐dimensional (2D) organic–metal halide perovskite materials have a high blue‐emitting quantum yield of up to 63.55 % and ultralong TADF lifetime of 103.12 ms at ambient temperature and atmosphere. Our design leverages the combined influences of a 2D space/electronic confinement effect and a modest heavy‐atom tuning strategy. Photophysical studies and calculations reveal that the enhanced quantum yield is due to the rigid laminate structure of perovskites, which can effectively inhibit the non‐radiative decay of excitons.     

Multi‐Resonance Induced Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorophores for Narrowband Green OLEDs

High‐color‐purity emissions with small a full‐width at half‐maximum (FWHM) are an ongoing pursuit for high‐resolution displays. Though the flourishment of narrow‐band emissive materials with multi‐resonance induced thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR‐TADF) in the blue region, such materials have not validated their potential in other color regions. By amplifying the influence of skeleton and peripheral units, a series of highly efficient green‐emitting MR‐TADF materials are firstly reported. Peripheral units with electron‐deficit properties can significantly narrow the energy gap for bathochromic emission without compromising the color fidelity. MR‐TADF emitters with photo‐luminance quantum yields of above 90 % with FWHMs of ≤25 nm are developed. The corresponding organic light‐emitting diodes show maximum external quantum efficiency/ power efficiency of 22.02 %/ 69.82 lm W^?1 with excellent long‐term stability.     

Polymorph-Dependent Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters: Understanding TADF from a Perspective of Aggregation State

Current research on thermally activated fluorescence (TADF) emitters is mainly based on the molecular levels, while the aggregation states of TADF emitters are to be explored deeply. Now two multifunctional emitters are reported with simultaneous TADF, aggregation induced emission (AIE), and multicolor mechanochromic luminescence (MCL) features. Both emitters also show polymorph-dependent TADF emission. Crystal structure analysis reveals that the polymorphism is ascribed to the mutable conformations in different aggregation states. This work brings new insight to TADF emitters from a perspective of aggregation states.