Highly Efficient Near-Infrared Organic Light-Emitting Diode Based on a Butterfly-Shaped Donor-Acceptor Chromophore with Strong Solid-State Fluorescence and a Large Proportion of Radiative Excitons

Fluorescence via Reverse Intersystem Crossing from Higher Triplet States in a Bisanthracene Derivative

To elucidate the high external quantum efficiency observed for organic light-emitting diodes using a bisanthracene derivative (BD1), non-radiative transition processes as well as radiative ones are discussed employing time-dependent density functional theory. It has been previously reported that the observed high external quantum efficiency of BD1 cannot be explained by the conventional thermally activated delayed fluorescence involving T1 exciton nor triplet-triplet annihilation. The calculated off-diagonal vibronic coupling constants of BD1, which govern the non-radiative transition rates, suggest a fluorescence via higher triplets (FvHT) mechanism, which entails the conversion of a high triplet exciton generated during electrical excitation into a fluorescent singlet exciton. This mechanism is valid as long as the relaxation of high triplet states to lower states is suppressed. In the case of BD1, its pseudo-degenerate electronic structure helps the suppression. A general condition is also discussed for the suppression of transitions in molecules with pseudo-degenerate electronic structures.

Charge-transfer states in triazole linked donor-acceptor materials: strong effects of chemical modification and solvation

A series of 1,2,3-triazole linked donor-acceptor chromophores are prepared by Click Chemistry from ene-yne starting materials. The effects of three distinct chemical variations are investigated: enhancing the acceptor strength through oxidation of the sulphur atom, alteration of the double bond configuration, and variation of the triazole substitution pattern. A detailed photophysical characterization shows that these alterations have a negligible effect on the absorption while dramatically altering the emission wavelengths. In addition, strong solvatochromism is found leading to significant red shifts in the case of polar solvents. The experimental findings are rationalized and related to the electronic structure properties of the chromophores by time-dependent density functional theory as well as the ab initio algebraic diagrammatic construction method for the polarization propagator in connection with a new formalism allowing to model the influence of solvation onto long-lived excited states and their emission energies. These calculations highlight the varying degree of intramolecular charge transfer character present for the different molecules and show that the amount of charge transfer is strongly modulated by the conducted chemical modifications, by the solvation of the chromophores, and by the structural relaxation in the excited state. It is, furthermore, shown that enhanced charge separation, as induced by chemical modification or solvation, reduces the singlet-triplet gaps and that two of the investigated molecules possess sufficiently low gaps to be considered as candidates for thermally activated delayed fluorescence.

Mulifunctional Dendritic Emitter: Aggregation-Induced Emission Enhanced, Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Material for Solution-Processed Multilayered Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials emerged as promising light sources in third generation organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). Much effort has been invested for the development of small molecular TADF materials and vacuum process-based efficient TADF-OLEDs. In contrast, a limited number of solution processable high-molecular weight TADF materials toward low cost, large area, and scalable manufacturing of solution processed TADF-OLEDs have been reported so far. In this context, we report benzophenone-core carbazole dendrimers (GnB, n = generation) showing TADF and aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) properties along with alcohol resistance enabling further solution-based lamination of organic materials. The dendritic structure was found to play an important role for both TADF and AIEE activities in the neat films. By using these multifunctional dendritic emitters as non-doped emissive layers, OLED devices with fully solution processed organic multilayers were successfully fabricated and achieved maximum external quantum efficiency of 5.7%.

Highly efficient non-doped blue organic light emitting diodes based on a D–π–A chromophore with different donor moieties

The non-doped OLED based on MPPIS-Cz exhibits blue emission with CIE of (0.16, 0.08), maximum current and external quantum efficiency of 1.52 cd A⁻¹ and of 1.42%, respectively.

Theoretical investigation of high-efficiency organic electroluminescent material: HLCT state and hot exciton process

HLCT excited state with both high PL efficiency and a large fraction of singlet exciton generation in EL. We employed the DFT method to investigate twisting D–A molecules, and found that the twist angle had a significant effect on the CT component.

Efficient phenanthroimidazole-styryl-triphenylamine derivatives for blue OLEDs: a combined experimental and theoretical study

Blue emitting devices based on 2-(4′-9H-carbazol-9-yl)-[1,1′-styryl]-4-yl-1-benzylpiperidine-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole (Cz-BPIS) exhibits blue emission with CIE coordinates of (0.16, 0.09), current density of 1.91 cd/A, power efficiency of 1.63 lm/W and external quantum efficiency of 2.61%.

Computational investigation on the large energy gap between the triplet excited-states in acenes

Accurate description triplet excited states is a challenge of organic materials. In this work, we investigate excited state behavior of acenes. The results show that the symmetry of the transition orbital have a great influence on the energy gap.

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).

Up to 100% Formation Ratio of Doublet Exciton in Deep-Red Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Based on Neutral π-Radical

In a neutral π-radical-based organic light-emitting diode (OLED), although the emission comes from the doublet excitons and their transition to the ground state is spin-allowed, the upper limit of internal quantum efficiency (IQE) is not clear, 50% or 100%? In this work, the deep-red OLEDs based on a neutral π-radical were fabricated. Up to 100% doublet exciton formation ratio was obtained through rational designing device structure and host-guest doping system. This indicates the IQE of neutral π-radical-based OLEDs will reach 100% if the nonradiative pathways of radicals can be suppressed. The maximum external quantum efficiency of the optimized device is as high as 4.3%, which is among the highest values of deep-red/near-infrared OLEDs with nonphosphorescent materials as emitters. Our results also indicate that using partially reduced radical mixture as emitter may be a way to solve aggregation-caused quenching in radical-based OLEDs.

Structure-activity relationship for the solid state emission of a new family of "push-pull"π-extended chromophores

We report the design, synthesis, molecular optical properties, and solid state emissive behaviour of a series of novel compounds, which, similar to the archetypal AIE luminogen tetraphenylethene, are formed of a central olefin stator and decorated with either three or four rotors. These rotors, being either electron-rich substituted benzenes, or electron-withdrawing functional groups (esters, ketones, cyano groups) confer a "push-pull" character to the overall molecular structure. Building on both new and already published contributions, a comprehensive picture of the properties and the potential of these compounds is provided.

Highly Emissive Far Red/Near-IR Fluorophores Based on Borylated Fluorene-Benzothiadiazole Donor-Acceptor Materials

Stille, Suzuki-Miyaura and Negishi cross-coupling reactions of bromine-functionalised borylated precursors enable the facile, high yielding, synthesis of borylated donor-acceptor materials that contain electron-rich aromatic units and/or extended effective conjugation lengths. These materials have large Stokes shifts, low LUMO energies, small band-gaps and significant fluorescence emission >700 nm in solution and when dispersed in a host polymer.

Triplet-Polaron-Interaction-Induced Upconversion from Triplet to Singlet: a Possible Way to Obtain Highly Efficient OLEDs

Two D-A-type molecules, 4-N-[4-(9-phenylcarbazole)]-3,5-bis(4-diphenylamine)phenyl-4H-1,2,4-triazole and 4,4'-(9-(4-(1-phenyl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazol-2-yl)phenyl)-9H-carbazole-3,6-diyl) bis-(N,N-diphenylaniline), are designed and synthesized. Organic lightemitting diodes based on them exhibit deep-blue emission and the singlet formation ratios are higher than the simple spin-statistics of 25%. A triplet-polaroninteraction-induced upconversion from triplet to singlet through a one-electron transfer mechanism is proposed, and is proven by magnetocurrent measurement and quantum-chemistry computation.

High-efficiency and low efficiency roll-off near-infrared fluorescent OLEDs through triplet fusion

Though urgently needed, high-performance near-infrared organic light-emitting diodes (NIR-OLEDs) are still rare. NIR-OLEDs based on conventional NIR fluorescent materials usually suffer from low external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) because of the intrinsic obstacles according to the spin-statistics limit and energy-gap law. Herein, we realized high-efficiency and low efficiency roll-off fluorescent NIR-OLEDs through efficient triplet fusion of a bipolar host doped with a special naphthoselenadiazole emitter (4,9-bis(4-(2,2-diphenylvinyl)phenyl)-naphtho[2,3-c][1,2,5]selenadiazole, NSeD). Unlike typical NIR organic donor-acceptor (D-A) chromophores, NSeD features a non-D-A structure and a very large HOMO/LUMO overlap and displays a strong deep-red to NIR fluorescence and unique ambipolar character. The corresponding photoluminescence quantum efficiency of NSeD reaches 52% in solution and retains 17% in the blend film. The optimized NIR-OLEDs demonstrated a strong emission at 700 nm, a high maximum EQE of 2.1% (vs. the predicted theoretical maximum efficiency of 1.3%) and the EQE remained at around 2% over a wide range of current densities from 18 to 200 mA cm-2, which is amongst the highest performance for NIR-OLEDs based on organic fluorescent materials.

Highly Efficient Nondoped Green Organic Light-Emitting Diodes with Combination of High Photoluminescence and High Exciton Utilization

Photoluminescence (PL) efficiency and exciton utilization efficiency are two key parameters to harvest high-efficiency electroluminescence (EL) in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). But it is not easy to simultaneously combine these two characteristics (high PL efficiency and high exciton utilization) into a fluorescent material. In this work, an efficient combination was achieved through two concepts of hybridized local and charge-transfer (CT) state (HLCT) and "hot exciton", in which the former is responsible for high PL efficiency while the latter contributes to high exciton utilization. On the basis of a tiny chemical modification in TPA-BZP, a green-light donor-acceptor molecule, we designed and synthesized CzP-BZP with this efficeient combination of high PL efficiency of η(PL) = 75% in the solid state and maximal exciton utilization efficiency up to 48% (especially, the internal quantum efficiency of η(IQE) = 35% substantially exceed 25% of spin statistics limit) in OLED. The nondoped OLED of CzP-BZP exhibited an excellent performance: a green emission with a CIE coordinate of (0.34, 0.60), a maximum current efficiency of 23.99 cd A(-1), and a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE, η(EQE)) of 6.95%. This combined HLCT state and "hot exciton" strategy should be a practical way to design next-generation, low-cost, high-efficiency fluorescent OLED materials.

Accurate description of hybridized local and charge-transfer excited-state in donor–acceptor molecules using density functional theory

The ωB97X was the most reliable functional for the accurate description of HLCT state at ground state and excited state.

Highly Efficient Near-Infrared Delayed Fluorescence Organic Light Emitting Diodes Using a Phenanthrene-Based Charge-Transfer Compound

Significant efforts have been made to develop high-efficiency organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) employing thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters with blue, green, yellow, and orange-red colors. However, efficient TADF materials with colors ranging from red, to deep-red, to near-infrared (NIR) have been rarely reported owing to the difficulty in molecular design. Herein, we report the first NIR TADF molecule TPA-DCPP (TPA=triphenylamine; DCPP=2,3-dicyanopyrazino phenanthrene) which has a small singlet-triplet splitting (ΔEST ) of 0.13 eV. Its nondoped OLED device exhibits a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 2.1 % with a Commission International de L'Éclairage (CIE) coordinate of (0.70, 0.29). Moreover, an extremely high EQE of nearly 10 % with an emission band at λ=668 nm has been achieved in the doped device, which is comparable to the most-efficient deep-red/NIR phosphorescent OLEDs with similar electroluminescent spectra.

Insight into the strong aggregation-induced emission of low-conjugated racemic C6-unsubstituted tetrahydropyrimidines through crystal-structure-property relationship of polymorphs

Racemic C6-unsubstituted tetrahydropyrimidines (THPs) are a series of fluorophores with a strong aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect. However, they do not possess the structural features of conventional AIE compounds. In order to understand their AIE mechanism, here, the influences of the molecular packing mode and the conformation on the optical properties of THPs were investigated using seven crystalline polymorphs of three THPs (1-3). The racemic THPs 1-3 have low-conjugated and highly flexible molecular structures, and hence show practically no emission in different organic solvents. However, the fluorescence quantum yields of their polymorphs are up to 93%, and the maximum excitation (λex) and emission (λem) wavelengths of the polymorphs are long at 409 and 484 nm, respectively. Single-crystal structures and theoretical calculation of the HOMOs and LUMOs based on the molecular conformations of these polymorphs indicate that the polymorphs with the shortest λex and λem values possess a RS-packing mode (R- and S-enantiomers self-assemble as paired anti-parallel lines) and a more twisted conformation without through-space conjugation between the dicarboxylates, but the polymorphs with longer λex and λem values adopt a RR/SS-packing mode (R- and S-enantiomers self-assemble as unpaired zigzag lines) and a less twisted conformation with through-space conjugation between the dicarboxylates. The molecular conformations of 1-3 in all these polymorphs are stereo and more twisted than those in solution. Although 1-3 are poorly conjugated, the radiative rate constants (kr) of their polymorphs are as large as conventional fluorophores (0.41-1.03 × 108 s-1) because of improved electronic conjugation by both through-bond and through-space interactions. Based on the obtained results, it can be deduced that the strong AIE arises not only from the restriction of intramolecular motion but also from enhanced electronic coupling and radiatively-favored inter-crossed local excitation (LE) and intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) excitation states. The abnormal molecular structures, easily-controllable self-assembly of the R- and S-enantiomers, and the strong AIE effect make THPs very useful fluorophores for applications and theoretical research.

Highly efficient electroluminescence from purely organic donor–acceptor systems

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters are third-generation electroluminescent materials that realize highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) without using rare metals. Here, after briefly reviewing the principles of TADF and its use in OLEDs, we report a sky-blue TADF emitter, 9-(4-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)phenyl)-N3,N3,N6,N6-tetraphenyl-9H-carbazole-3,6-diamine (DAC-BTZ). DAC-BTZ is a purely organic donor–acceptor-type molecule with a small energy difference between its lowest excited singlet state and lowest triplet state of 0.18–0.22 eV according to fluorescence and phosphorescence spectra of a DAC-BTZ-doped film. In addition, the doped film exhibits a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 0.82. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements of the doped film confirm that DAC-BTZ emits TADF. An OLED containing DAC-BTZ as an emitter exhibits a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 10.3%, which exceeds those obtained with conventional fluorescent emitters (5–7.5%). TADF from DAC-BTZ makes a large contribution to the high EQE of its OLED.