A New Design Strategy for Efficient Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Organic Emitters: From Twisted to Planar Structures

Xiankai Chen, Youichi Tsuchiya, Yuma Ishikawa, Cheng Zhong, Chihaya Adachi, Jean-Luc Bredas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

213 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the traditional molecular design of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters composed of electron-donor and electron-acceptor moieties, achieving a small singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔEST ) in strongly twisted structures usually translates into a small fluorescence oscillator strength, which can significantly decrease the emission quantum yield and limit efficiency in organic light-emitting diode devices. Here, based on the results of quantum-chemical calculations on TADF emitters composed of carbazole donor and 2,4,6-triphenyl-1,3,5-triazine acceptor moieties, a new strategy is proposed for the molecular design of efficient TADF emitters that combine a small ΔEST with a large fluorescence oscillator strength. Since this strategy goes beyond the traditional framework of structurally twisted, charge-transfer type emitters, importantly, it opens the way for coplanar molecules to be efficient TADF emitters. Here, a new emitter, composed of azatriangulene and diphenyltriazine moieties, is theoretically designed, which is coplanar due to intramolecular H-bonding interactions. The synthesis of this hexamethylazatriangulene-triazine (HMAT-TRZ) emitter and its preliminary photophysical characterizations point to HMAT-TRZ as a potential efficient TADF emitter.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1702767
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume29
Issue number46
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 17 2017

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