Theoretical Study of Xanthenone and Phenothiazine Derivatives for Blue TADF Emitter

Two novel thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials (PTZ-XTN and 2PTZ-XTN), with phenothiazine (PTZ) as an electron donor and xanthenone derivatives (XTN) as electron acceptors, were designed and theoretically investigated as blue OLED emitters. We used density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent DFT (TD-DFT) calculations to determine the electron distribution of HOMO and LUMO and the energy of the lowest singlet (S₁) and the lowest triplet (T₁) excited states. The large dihedral angle between the electron donor and the electron acceptor imparted a small spatial overlap between HOMO and LUMO in all the materials. This charge separation of the HOMO and LUMO leads to a small energy gap between the S₁ state and T₁ state, thereby leading to TADF emission. Among the materials studied, PTZ-XTN has the most suitable properties for a blue TADF OLED emitter, even though 2PTZ-XTN has the smallest energy gap between the S₁ and T₁ states.